Dark Storm
by Diabolicael
Summary: A retelling of Tin Man, from start to finish and beyond. Reimagined DG. A bit darker and more complex than the mini. I promise there is romance! I know it's alot of reading, but TOTALLY worth it. Don't just look at CH1, read CH3 before you give up on it!
1. The Calm Before

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, I don't think. If i did...well, you know. Heh.**

**I wasn't a big fan of the DG character and rather annoyed with how there was no reconcilliation of any of the romantic tensions in the mini-series. This is my take on it. New DG, tweaked story. It's a little darker and more complex, as far as emotions go. So... Tin Man re-re-imagined. Hope you enjoy.**

**PS: I dont do that whole K+ blue balls stuff, so this is gonna be listed as M for safety and mayeb MA later.**

**PPS: I can survive only with a steady supply of baby tears or feedback. So R&R... or else.**

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**Dark Storm**

_Fear. Urgency. Cold; the bitter cold. A woman. She knew the woman, but didn't. Felt she must listen to her, but could not understand what it was she was supposed to do. It was all a blur, as always. The Woman with the lavender eyes, the need, and over all the chilling, soul-constricting fear._

_"A storm is coming!"_

DeeDee's body jerked and her eyes flew open. For a moment the fear ruled her, as it always did in the dream, then subsided. She relaxed with an irritated puff of air.

"Fuck." She hated that dream, but it was coming more and more often in the last few months. Almost every night. _Why can't I have normal dreams, like everyone else? _She used to have a recurring dream about Jurassic Park, which was scary, but not like this. DeeDee would have definitely preferred dinosaurs to the lavender-eyed woman who demanded things of her she did not understand.

She glance over at her alarm clock. _Wonderful._ It was 3:29pm, literally one minute before her alarm was set to go off. She clicked the Alarm-Off switch and tossed back her covers. As always, it took little time to get dressed and ready for work - an easy gig as night security at the town's textile plant. All she had to do was read and wander around for 9 hours a night. Best of all, the job required minimal contact with people. And if nothing else, DeeDee was not what you would call a people person. At least, not in this small mid-western town, with it's gossipy hens and half-drunk good ol' boys.

She sighed. Soon, she would finish the book she was working on (any of the books she was working on) and use the money to get the hell out of this god forsaken burg once and for all. Her mother might have liked the supposed small-town charm of the place, but DeeDee certainly did not.

Her mother was in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes from lunch. She had a smile for her daughter, as always, though her eyes were sad. As always.

"You look tired," the copper-haired woman said. DeeDee had not told her mother about the disturbing dream that plagued her, because she had a tendency to worry. And the last thing DeeDee wanted to do was give her another thing to worry about. "I wish you'd get a normal job, Peanut."

DeeDee smirked at her mother. "It's a normal job. It's not like I'm a masked crime fighter."

"I just wish you weren't out there alone all night."

DeeDee gave her mother a reassuring smile, which, of course, never worked, but she did it anyway. "I'm not completely alone. I can always call the Sheriff on my radio if I have a problem. And," she paused. "I mean, really, who in this town would even want to break into that place anyway?"

Her mother, as always, looked unconvinced, but relented. DeeDee didn't like to make her worry, but refused to take a job as a waitress; which was the only other readily available job in this town, and completely out of the question. She dropped a kiss on her mother's cheek and headed out the door.

Fired. She was fired. They called it "layed-off," because they would hire her back as soon as they were able to afford her salary, but of course that meant fired. In this town, anyway. She knew too many people, her own mother included, who had been layed-off from that plant and promised they would be called back as soon as possible. Promises meant very little around these parts. To DeeDee not least of all.

She dropped into the recliner and turned on the TV, hoping some mindless late night television would be cathartic. As Conan O'Brien hopped and rowed and cavorted around his stage like a lovable idiot, DeeDee tried not to cry. It wasn't easy. She kept seeing in her head, as she drove home from the plant for what she was sure the last time, Em's Diner. The sign in the window read, in mocking red letters, "Waitress Wanted."

_God, help me._

Outside, clouds were rolling in.


	2. The Storm

_A storm is coming… Dorothy!_

Lightning flashed outside, followed by a boom of thunder so loud the window panes rattled. DeeDee awoke with a shock for the second time in less than twenty four hours. She was still in the recliner and the TV was on. Her stomach dropped into her toes and her skin prickled with goose bumps as she took in the blue screen and white crawl along the bottom. For the first time in her life, she was looking at the emergency broadcast system and it was not "only a test."

She sat there, frozen, for a moment. Unable to process what was happening. Then the lighting came again, thunder dropping like a bomb almost in unison. She couldn't stop the small shout of fear and surprise that escaped her throat. From below her feet, she heard a crash and her mother shouted. In a flash the girl was out of her chair and racing down the stairs.

"Mom!" she called, panicked. At the bottom of the stairs, she saw the man. Dressed like some kind of futuristic cop in a full length leather trench coat he held what, honestly, looked like a ray gun -all tubes and strange bulbs.

"Where is she?" he demanded. No, it wasn't him. Someone else had spoken. So, there was more than one man in her house.

"I'm not telling you anything!" her mother shouted at the unseen intruder. The fear in her mother's voice ignited a flame deep in DeeDee's chest. She'd always had a temper and was unsure of what might happen if she ever let it go completely. She was about to find out.

_You son of a bitch!_ She shouted in her head, gritting her teeth and launching herself off the steps and onto the strange man at the bottom. He never say her coming and went down like a ton of bricks. DeeDee landed on top of him, but cracked her elbow on the hardwood floor. Ignoring the sharp pain that lance up her arm, the young woman concentrated on the man beneath her, who was trying to throw her off. She shoved on the back of the man's head, smashing his face into the floor as hard as she could. Once, twice, and again, then he stopped moving. She picked up his odd gun, hoping firing it was as simple as pulling the trigger, and hurried toward the kitchen where the voices were coming from.

Her mother was there, backed against the wall by the table, three more of the men surrounding her menacingly. She aimed with the strange weapon and pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang, but nothing happened. So either she'd done it wrong or had simply missed her target - the man closest to her. The sound drew there attention as lightning blinded her through the window for an instant, back lighting a huge, black funnel bearing down on the house. The men turned and started for her. DeeDee fired the weapon again and again nothing happened, but apparently the intruders did not know she was unable to make the thing work. The one in front of her dropped to the floor to dodge a non-existent projectile and DeeDee kicked him in the face. It surprised her how she could feel his teeth clack together as the toe pf her boot caught under his jaw.

Her mother took advantage of the other two's distraction and, using a strength DeeDee had never known the woman could muster, tipped the refrigerator on the man in front of her. He went down with a surprised shout, which startled his friend for a moment. DeeDee took that small break and threw her weapon at him. She would think later how she'd always turned up her nose at the henchmen who threw their empty guns at Superman when the bullets did not work. It seemed such a useless gesture. However, the gun caught the man right behind the ear and he stumbled, giving her mother the opportunity to dart passed him. DeeDee tried to run out the front door, but her mother caught her hand. Something that she would have thought of as a bullet, had it not come from that alien gun the men carried, whizzed by her ear and shattered a vase on the mantle.

"Upstairs!" her mom shouted. It was at that moment that DeeDee realized she could barely hear the woman over the roar of the tornado. She followed after her mother, shouting at the woman that they needed to get out of the house and to the cellar, but her words were unheeded.

Her mother lead her up to her attic room and out the window, onto the roof of their small home. DeeDee tried to stop her, but the woman was pulling her along as though she were a child again and somehow she was too strong. The wind nearly pulled both of them off the roof. It was the most surreal experience of her life to stand there and watch the twister inching its way toward them, bringing death with it.

"We have to go now!" her mother shouted.

"How do we get down?" DeeDee asked, forgetting for the moment that it had been her mother who had dragged them up here.

"Jump into the storm!" Mother pulled her towards the roof's edge, closer to oblivion.

"No!" DeeDee pulled back, or tried to, but her mother's grip was like iron. "Please!"

"I'm sorry, DeeDee," her mother shouted. "I should have told you sooner!"

"Told me what?"

"Go! Now!"

DeeDee screamed as her mother bodily shoved her off the roof and into the twisting winds. She felt herself tumbling, blind and deaf in the black embrace of the cyclone, for a moment and then, mercifully, she lost herself to unconsciousness.


	3. Am I Dreaming?

Slowly she started to come back to herself. She knew pain: her back, her arm, her head. Her head most of all. On the third try she managed to get her eyes open, but the glare of the suns quickly shut them once more. The snapped open again, just as fast. _Two suns?_ Had the fall affected her vision? No, the rest of the world was normal. How could there be two suns, then? Looking up at them was making her head ache more, so she forced herself to stop. That was when she noticed the trees. She was surrounded by them, but there was only one tree that grew near her home. She struggled to sit up. _Wait, what fall?_ And, come to think of it, these trees were not quite like any she'd ever seen before. How far had the tornado thrown her?

The fear hit her like a physical strike and it took her a moment to fight it down into the back of her mind. The storm had passed, she had to focus on the here and now. She blinked away the tears that had started to blur her vision and took deep, slow breaths to calm herself. Now, she looked about her, taking stock of her situation. She was laying on the floor of an unfamiliar forest, surrounded by debris that was the same color as her house. Her shirt was hanging half way off; her jacket hanging on a low tree branch not far from where she sat. One of her shoes, however, was missing completely and no where to be seen. Her white sock looked so odd next to the remaining shoe she was tempted to remove it, the shoe, but didn't. She righted her shirt.

DeeDee slowly got to her feet, leaning against a nearby tree for support as a momentary wave of dizziness washed over her. When it passed, the girl went to retrieve her jacket. Suddenly, she heard an oddly familiar rushing sound behind her and spun to face it, but nothing was there. After waiting a moment to see if the sound would repeat itself, she began sifting through the rubble. She thought she was looking for her shoe, but that didn't seem right. Her mom would know where the find the shoe.

The terror that hit her this time could not be forced back and it sent her to her knees, tears clouding her eyes and slipping down her cheeks. If the twister tossed her god knew where, then her mother… But no, she, DeeDee, was alive and relatively unharmed. Or at least she thought so. Perhaps she had been knocked unconscious in the storm and was dreaming. That theory was quickly discarded. DeeDee had only become aware she was dreaming a handful of times in her whole life, and each time the realization had been enough to jog her awake. But her head did hurt a lot. Brain damage? It was possible, but she didn't think so. There came that odd rushing sound again and she twisted around on her knees to face it, but again there was nothing there.

Seeing _and_ hearing things now. The evidence for brain injury was becoming more and more compelling. A chance glance around her brought her eyes to what looked like a bit of shoelace peeking from underneath a board. She got to her feet again. As the girl bent to lift the board, the rushing sound came a third time, accompanied by what was unmistakably a strained whisper. DeeDee seized a branch near her feet and whirled to face whatever was at her back.

"Jesus Christ!" she nearly fell back over her feet in shock. Hanging by ropes that looked for all the world like a Hollywood Wire-fighting rig were what could only be described as small turkey men. DeeDee was perversely reminded of South Park and only just caught the words "Crab People" from passing her lips. _Look like turkey, taste like people._

At first there were only two of them, but more descended from the canopy to surround her. They each held a small spear, while she brandished her stick like a samurai warrior.

"Watchful," the blue one (who was the largest, but still only about three feet tall) warned his comrades. "be watchful. I like not the look of her."

If she the one surrounded by spear-wielding poultry men, she would have found that funny. One to her right rushed forward, but she swung at him with her stick and he jumped back.

"Back off, Butterball!" she shouted.

"Gaze not into her eyes," Big Blue ordered. "For fear she may turn you into a scree."

"A _scree_?" DeeDee scoffed.

"Who are you?" this asked by the red-faced one who stood next to Big Blue.

"I'm DeeDee," she said, her voice harsh with anger. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I am Red Hat. We are resistance fighters of the Eastern Guild," he responded.

"Do not speak of who we be," Big Blue ordered, thought something about Red Hat told DeeDee that he was the leader and not this aggressive one. "We know not of her trickery."

His half-rhyming Yoda speak was starting to make her head ache more. "Trickery?" she snapped, her voice pitched high with incredulity. "I don't even know where I am! I'm just trying to find my mother. You-"

"Creatures do not fall from the sky lacking magic," Red Hat interrupted her. It sounded like an accusation. _Magic?!_

"Mo-bats fall from the sky," Blue corrected him.

"Mo-bats have wings," Red Hat hissed, obviously annoyed with the interruptions of his cohort.

"Wings or not, she's a spy," he accused, jabbing his stick towards her as he spoke. "A spy from the sky!"

"No," DeeDee said, exasperated. "I'm not a spy. I'm _not_ a spy!"

They advanced on her and she backed away reflexively. She shrieked in shock as the ground suddenly fell away. But no, the ground had not fallen, she was jerked up into the air. She'd stepped into a net behind her that she had not seen.

"Get her to the camp," she heard Red Hat order from below her.

"Let me out of her, you little freaks!" she shouted. But, of course, no one listened.

They cut her down and dragged her through the woods, still in the net, shouting obscenities at them the whole way. After a time, they stopped near a stand of trees that looked like every other stand of trees in the forest, where what resembled a large, wicker bird cage waited. Her little captors removed the net and forced her, struggling, at spear-point through a hole in the bottom of the cage. She barely had time to notice the cage's other occupant, a dark-haired man who might have been tall were he not tied to the top of the cage, before the cage was whisked up into the tree tops.

After fighting back the urge to vomit, DeeDee looked around. The view was spectacular, but looking through the whole in the middle of the cage floor made her queasy, as did the thought that all that held the cage up was a single rope which had been out in the elements for who knew how long. She didn't mind heights, never had; it was the falling that bothered her.

On level with the cage was what so closely resembled an Ewok tree village that DeeDee momentarily reconsidered her belief that she was not dreaming. Then Red Hat and Big Blue came strutting down the rope and wood catwalk that ran beside the hanging cell.

"Where will the Sorceress attack from, DeeDee the Spy? The east?" Big Blue demanded. The look of annoyance Red Hat shot him gave DeeDee the idea that the bigger man had been told to remain quiet, but had disregarded his orders.

"I don't understand," she told them.

"Will the witch attack from the east?" Red hat said, emphatically.

"I didn't mean that I didn't understand the question. I meant I have no idea what you're talking about," she clarified.

"Will Azkadellia-" he began again, but she cut him off.

"Who?"

"The Sorceress Azkadellia. The one for whom you spy," Big Blue said snidely. "From which direction will her men come? Will they walk or will they fly?"

She bit back a shout. "How many times do I have to tell you people that nothing you say makes sense to me?"

Red Hat rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Perhaps she is just a girl."

"Yes!" DeeDee agreed quickly. "I am. I am just a girl."

"Azkadellia has searched most all villages looking for the stone." After he said it, both turkey men looked at her expectantly. She could only stare back, blankly.

"_Are we next on her list_?" he asked, obviously losing patience.

"I thought we just established I am just a girl! How would I know?" She did shout this time. "If this is how you treat everyone, it's no wonder you've got enemies!"

Big Blue held up her locket, the one her mother gave her, the one she wore every day. She had not even noticed it was missing.

"Hey! Give me that back, it's mine!" she demanded, hotly.

"Our scouts spotted this woman being pursued by Long Coats along the Old Brick Route to Central City," Red Hat informed her.

"Or _leading _the Long Coats there," Big Blue added with a look that made DeeDee want to step on him. But news of her mother overrode any annoyance.

"Someone saw my mom?" she asked, grabbing the cage bars and leaning against them, as if getting closer to the two men would get her closer to her mother.

"You say 'mother', I say 'spy'!" Big Blue told her. DeeDee fell back in disgust, barely avoiding the hole in the cage floor.

"There's a shocker," she spat. "I say 'pinecone', you say 'spy'!"

He turned to Red Hat. "There's only one way to tell if she speaks truth or lies. Strap her to the flayer." He pointed to a small hut she had not noticed before at the base of one of the trees. "And she talks or dies."

Great, more rhyming. But, apparently, Red Hat agreed.

"Warm up the blades," he said ominously.

"Squeal as you peel, 'til the truth brings a deal." He held out her locket, taunting her, then let it fall to the forest floor below.

"Hey! You asshole!"

Neither bird-man responded. They just turned and left. They would torture her until she told them the truth? They would torture her until she told them what they wanted to hear, more accurately. It was this kind of ridiculous logic that fueled the Inquisition.

"You're out of your tiny, fucking minds! You know that?!" she shouted after them. _I have to get out of here!_ she thought. She stood to get a better view of things and find a way out of this mess, and bumped her shoulder against the knee of the man she had fully forgotten was tied up behind her. She looked up and he averted his eyes as though embarrassed for her that he'd overheard her conversation with the half-retarded bird people.

"Why are you-"

"Up here?" he finished her sentence. "Little… _Ankle-biters!_ … thought it would be funny to keep me hanging around."

DeeDee gave one silent chuckle at the pun, though she wasn't in the mood for humor. He apparently took this as a sign of comradery.

"Loosen that rope and I might have the last laugh," he said, wiggling his eyebrows conspiratorially. She chewed her lip, looking back at him indecisively.

"Come on, doll," he coaxed. "If Mommy is on the route to Central City, then you're falling farther and farther behind."

"You know the way?" she asked and could actually hear the desperate hope in her voice.

"Sure," he said offhandedly, as if it were common knowledge. "Though it's kind of hard to give directions like this," he added, pointedly. Then, sarcastically, "Unless you have a better offer."

Which, of course, she didn't. And really, in real world people behind bars usually did something to belong there. In this place, where ever this place was, all you had to do was be alive, apparently. So, she untied the rope and let him down. He sighed in relief and she wondered how long he'd been bound with that rope around his chest holding him up. Did he have bruises from it?

Now that his feet were on her level, she found she'd been right and he was rather taller than her. Close to six feet, give or take. Standing this close to him she could see his eyes were a light brown color, his hair black and in odd little dreads that stuck out from his head in layers. His nose was rather long, but it suited his triangular face. That, coupled with long thin limbs gave the illusion that he was taller than his true height. He was not unattractive. And he smelled like hay and earth and something sweet she couldn't identify; it was rather lovely, she thought.

Then the cage shifted and a shaft of light glinted off the zipper set into the middle of his scalp.

"What the hell?" DeeDee asked out loud, neat meaning to. He looked insulted.

"Hey. You ain't so hot at first glance either, honey,' he pouted. Normally, DeeDee would have blushed from the embarrassment of his insult, regardless of whether she took it personally or not, but not with the shock of seeing a man with a zipper set into his skull. Which happened to be open and, oh God, she did not want to look inside. She didn't think she could handle that. He noticed her gawking at him.

"Is there a problem?" he asked. She blinked several times to gather her thoughts and shook her head.

"No, but your… uh…" He looked at her expectantly and she barely caught herself from saying "XYZ". "Your," she paused and whispered, "zipper is open."

His eyes widened and he hurriedly closed himself up. "Sorry. Didn't mean to offend."

_Right,_ she thought. _Offend. Not freak the fuck out._

"Gotta be careful not to lose your marbles," he jokes. She wanted to roll her eyes at the corny joke, but he went on. "But, since the Sorceress had her Medi-coats take mine out… well, you flick the abacus."

Now that was clever. She rarely heard anyone use the term abacus and the fact that he had made her think she just might be starting to like him.

"They took out your brain?" she asked, astonished. "Why?"

"Because of what I know," he told her sadly. "Or used to know. Whatever it was."

For a moment he seemed to ponder his own sad fate, then he looked back at her.

"The name's Glitch. On account 'a sometimes my synapses don't fire right." He paused and repeated. "Sometimes my synapses don't fire right."

For a split second she thought he might be pulling her leg, but the lack of guile in his eyes and voice told her this was for real. It was probably the saddest thing she'd ever heard.

"You just said that," she told him, afraid he might say it again and then she might start crying.

"Did I?" he asked. Then laughed it off with the ease of lots of practice. "Well, there you go. Glitching again."

"And here I thought this nightmare couldn't get any weirder." she said, because she could think of nothing else. Glitch became suddenly serious.

"Oh this is no nightmare, this is the O.Z. The Outer Zone." He closed his eyes in a long blink and when he continued his face and voice was wistful. "Used to be a piece of heaven, too. Until Azka-D got her claws into it." The last on a sad note. Before DeeDee could ask who this Azkadellia was everyone spoke of, she was distracted by the sound of a horse whinnying. She looked towards the sound and saw a whole troupe of those men in the leather coats that had invaded her home.

"Long Coats!" Red Hat shouted an alarm off in the village somewhere. Little turkey men began scurrying around the treetops. If there was ever a time when her captors were distracted enough to escape this was it. DeeDee just hoped she had the balls to try it. The cat walk was not far away from the cage. She'd never be able to jump it, but if she could just swing the cell close enough, she and Glitch could make it out. She dropped down through the hole.

"What are you doing?" Glitch asked in alarm.

"I have an idea," she told him. He reached for her hand to stop her, but she brushed him away.

"Hello? DeeDee?" he said, his voice shaking with worry. "DeeDee it's too high to jump. I really don't think this is a good idea."

She began to pump her legs forward and back, trying very hard not to think about how Glitch was right and this was a very bad idea. The cage moved though, and if she could just hold on a few more seconds, they'd both be free.

"Come back!" he called down to her. "Come back right now!"

She wanted to reassure him, but could not get any words out. Her throat had closed in fear. She fought the panic that was trying to take her over, knowing if she let it win, she would fall. All at once the cat walk was beneath her feet and she let go. Had she waited an instant more, she would have missed it completely as the cage swung back and gone down and down and down and, Jesus, she needed to not think of that ever. Never ever. She turned back to Glitch, still in the cage, swinging away from her.

"Come on," she called to him. "We don't have much time."

"Wait for me," he called back. She nodded and held out her arms, beckoning him to her. _What, am I gonna catch him like he's a fucking baby?_ If she needed to, yes. There was no way she'd let him fall. If for no other reason than she'd have to watch him drop away from her.

He dropped down through the hole as the cage swung towards her and held out one hand, making her heart stop. _Don't let go,_ she pleaded with him silently. His hand was moist when she caught it, but not slippery they way they always were in the movies. She pulled him to her and he let go of the cage, grabbing the catwalk rope rail. She pulled at his coat with her other hand as he came over the rail, wishing insanely that she had another hand, because the more hands she touched him with, the less likely he was to suddenly slip away from her.

"Hurry," he urged and they ran on, from one catwalk to the next until they found a rope ladder than dropped to the forest floor below. DeeDee reached for it, only to find that she was still holding Glitches hand and had to concentrate for an instant to make herself let go. She almost slipped four times on the way down because of her one shoe on the rope ladder. The birdies were taunting their new enemies, but fell silent when DeeDee heard the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw. She wasn't sure if she was rooting for the right side, but she felt a perverse slice of pleasure at the slap of karma dealt her tiny jailers.

Having her feet safely on the ground was possibly the best feeling DeeDee had ever experienced in her life. Glitch dropped down the last few feet and took her hand again, leading her off into the woods, away from the crazy turkey men of the Eastern Guild and the mysterious Long Coats.

What was he leading he towards, she did not know.

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**More tomorrow everyone. R&R.. or the babies get it!**


	4. Tin Can

**sigh not nearly enough reviews coming in. I might have to resort to other measures... and you know what that means for the babies.**

**Anyway, here we get our first glimpse of the much-loved Cain. and Glitch grows on DeeDee.**

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"Now, I may not have all my marbles," Glitch began. He was no longer holding her hand, but somehow DeeDee could still feel him against her palm. They tromped, side by side, through the underbrush. "But I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not from around here."

DeeDee snorted. "You mean I don't blend?"

"Like a red spot on a white dress," he chirped. "Where _are_ you from?"

"I might look like an idiot, but I'm gonna have to go with Earth," she told him, feeling ridiculous. But he didn't laugh at her, only nodded sagely.

"You're from the Other Side," he said, as if the term should mean something to her. "That's what it's called here. We get your kind in the O.Z. from time to time."

"Yeah?"

"Sure! Interdimensional travel isn't nearly as rare as one might think."

"Oh," she blinked. _Learn something knew everyday._

"So, where are we off to?" Glitch asked, looking around interestedly. It took Dee a moment to register. She decided to dwell as little as possible on his affliction.

"You're leading me to the Old Brick Route, so I can find my way to Central City," she reminded him. "So, I can find my mother."

"Oh!" he said, perking. "This way then."

He took her hand and placed it on his arm as though he were escorting her to a dance and changed course slightly. Four paces later they were on a worn dirt path she had not noticed before. Glitch led her around fallen trees. DeeDee had never been big on touching, especially strangers; physical contact of any kind generally made her cringe in discomfort. Oddly, she felt none of that with Glitch, whoever he was. She blamed it on her recent head trauma. And the way he looked at her like she was really there.

"My noggin wasn't always this way, you know," he informed her. "I was government advisor numero one! I was the top dog's…"

He released her hand to hold both of his own up for inspection as he struggled to finish the sentence, not noticing that the path had abruptly ended. "Right hand man. It all would have been fine, but her…"

Now, he stopped and looked around in frustration. "The road _is_ around here somewhere. I… I _know_ it!"

DeeDee tried to think of something comforting to say. After all, he was doing his best. Off in the distance, she heard something. It sounded like people. And it didn't sound like a party. Then a loud pop that sounded like a firecracker, which is what they always say gunshots sound like in the real world. Gooseflesh worked its way up her back and over her scalp, like spiders creeping on her skin.

"You look familiar. Have we met before?" Glitch suddenly asked. She put a hand to his shoulder.

"Shh," she ordered, trying to find the direction of the commotion. "Do you hear that?"

"Yes," the man whispered, followed immediately by, "No."

"No!" a woman shouted, pleadingly. DeeDee grabbed the lapel of Glitch's coat and pulled him behind her as she ran off towards the voice. They came over a hill and found that the woods ended a few yards away and the ground stretch away in a huge expanse of rolling pasture; a large pond lay not far off to the west. Just beyond the tree line was a small, quaint cottage, complete with an old-fashioned hand-pump for water. It would have been picturesque if not for the large group of armed men, clad in black leather. Fear and hatred bubbled nauseatingly in Dee's stomach.

The Long Coats were brutalizing the inhabitants of the cottage, a small family: father, mother, and child - a son. While two men held back the father, who was already bloody and struggling to keep his feet, another held fast to the son, a boy of about twelve. Two more were accosting the wife.

"These guys are everywhere," DeeDee breathed. She felt Glitch, at her side, tremble.

"Yeah, that's life in the O.Z. these days; tougher and tougher," he said in quiet, fearful awe.

Their leader, marked by a metal gauntlet that ran from shoulder to finger-tips and a superior attitude, swaggered around the scene, obviously enjoying himself. He ran his fingers gently through the woman's hair, pulling away with a long satin ribbon, which he wrapped around his fist. Smirking, he drew back and punched the helpless husband in the face, snapping his head back. DeeDee jerked as though she felt the blow herself. The restrained man let out a roar of impotent rage. DeeDee felt it reverberate through her whole body. Helpless fury, raging at his attackers and himself for being too weak to defend his family. _God, this can't really be happening. I want to wake up now!_

"No!" the wife begged, trying in vain to reach her husband. "Please, leave him alone!"

The boy kicked out at the leader. The vile man took hold of the youngling from his subordinate and pulled the child around to where the father would have full view as he backhanded his son. The boy crumpled to the ground.

Glitch flinched. "Oh! Even with half a brain I can tell that we gotta get out of here."

But DeeDee wasn't listening to him. She could not just run away and leave this family to suffer like this. She was not that person. She looked around for some kind of weapon. Anything. All she saw were rocks and sticks. _Well, what do you expect? Lawn darts? _Rocks and sticks it would be, then. She grabbed a good sized stone and a medium sized stick that felt solid.

"DeeDee, what are you doing?" Glitch asked urgently.

"I'm going to go in there -"

He cut her off. "That's crazy! You can't-"

"I'm going to attack, then run, and draw a few off. You help that man get his family out of here," she ordered. He looked at her like she was crazy and she really could not argue with that belief.

"I can't fight them!" he insisted. She put the hand with the stone in it on his shoulder, drawing him close.

"You don't have to beat them. Just get those people away from them."

She did not give him further chance to argue, taking off down the hill towards the cottage. She had never heard anyone use the term Ice Butterflies before, but if she lived through this that would be the only way to describe the feeling that settled in her abdomen. A small voice in the back of her mind was screaming for her to stop, but the rest of her was pushing for this; for her to take action.

She hit the flat tract of land where the home was built and rushed head-on into the foray, just as the father gave a heave against the men holding him, breaking the grasp of one. He reached for the leader just as DeeDee threw her rock at a Long Coat standing back from the group, so as not to accidentally hit anyone who did not deserve it.

"Hey, fuckheads!" she shouted. Knowing they would pursue her if she landed even one hit on the lead man, that was who she went for first, swinging as strongly as she could for his skull. The stick went right through his head and the man evaporated like mist. The force of her swing drew DeeDee into a spin and she lost her balance. The ground was hard and cold and damp as she landed right on her ass, looking up in amazement.

The entire scene had vanished like smoke. The house behind her was dilapidated and overrun with weeds and vines. The hand-pump was overgrown as well and looked so rusted she doubted the handle would ever move again.

"What the fuck?" was all she could manage.

The thought came to her that perhaps this was how Glitch felt when he glitched. He came jogging up just after her, quick to pull her to her feet again. Hands still joined, they looked around the area, trying to make sense of what had just happened. A whirring sound, like a wind-up toy winding down drew his attention and he lead her over to a post. Sticking out of the post was what looked like an adjustable shower head or sprinkler spigot. Glitch seemed to recognize it.

"What is it?"

"A TDESPHTL," he said. Then glanced at her, remembering she often had no idea what anyone was talking about, and clarified. "A Tri-Dimensional Energy Stored Projected Holographic Time Loop."

_Try saying that three times fast._

"Nifty little thing," he said, offhandedly. A look of recognition came then. "Hey, I think I invented it."

"So, what? It was fake?"

"Oh no," he assured her. "It happened. Some time or another."

"Well, it's obviously not a trap or we'd be in it by now," DeeDee reasoned out loud. "So, why have it play over and over, if no one was here to see it?"

Glitch shrugged. She took a slower look around; really looking this time, not just glancing about for immediate threats. About fifty feet away from the house stood a old-timey dive suit. Or, that's what the girl thought it was at first glance.

"Well, I think it…" Glitch trailed off as Dee headed over to investigate, hoping she was way off base with the idea that was trying to worm it's way into the forefront of her thoughts. As they got closer to it, she saw that the suit was roughly the shape of a human body and solid, like an iron maiden. Little canisters and hidden pumps made gurgling and hissing sounds. There was a small window in the face of the thing. Bile rose in the back of her throat as her theory was confirmed. She tapped on the chest of the device to be sure. It tapped back. Glitch jumped back a step.

"There's someone in there," Dee told him, looking the contraption over. He scoffed.

"Yeah. Or some_thing._"

On one side were hinges and down the opposite seem were latches, help in place by small pegs. Easy enough to open from the outside, impossible from within. She let go of Glitch's hand and went off to search the house for something with which she could pop out the pegs. On an anvil near the back door she found an old, rusty hammer which would do the trick. A few taps later and she was able to open the maiden.

Acrid smoke billowed from inside, blinding and choking her momentarily. Glitch caught her upper arms and pulled her back to where she could breathe. The smoke wafted away, revealing the semblance of a man. He was wearing what was probably once a white shirt and pants of an unknown color, both of which were streaked with gray grime. Most of his face was covered by a long, matted gray beard and wildly unkempt soot-colored hair that fell across his eyes and down his shoulders, but what little skin could be seen was so grimey that it looked like he'd been painted with silver.

He kept his feet for an instant, then, with a choking cough, he fell to his hands and knees, gasping for air. DeeDee tried to reach out to catch him, but Glitch held fast. The man looked up with wide, unfocused, bloodshot eyes.

"Where are they?" he rasped. Before any answer could be given, the man collapsed and lost consciousness. DeeDee pulled away from Glitch's grasp and knelt by the fallen man. She pulled away the dirty hair to press her fingers to his neck, looking for a pulse. It was surprisingly strong.

"Glitch, help me turn him over," she ordered. After a moment's hesitation, her companion complied. The prone man was breathing deep and rhythmically and did not appear to be in any kind of distress, which made little sense to her, but as long as he wasn't dying in her arms, that was just fine with the girl.

"Go see if you can find a glass in the house and bring some water."

The gangly man jumped up and rushed off to carry out her command. DeeDee cradled the unconscious stranger's head in her lap and brushed the mess of hair away from his face. He looked deceptively peaceful. She was praying that he did not suddenly take a turn for the worse. A few minutes later, glitch bounded towards her, water sloshing over the sides of a cracked glass in one hand. In the other, he toted a metal pail that was also spilling water, as he came. He dropped to his knees at her side.

"Is he still alive?"

"Yeah." DeeDee shook the man's shoulder, hoping he wasn't beyond waking. After a moment, he stirred. His eyes flew open and he tried to sit up, but the girl was able to hold his shoulders down easily enough, since he had no leverage.

"Where are they?" he demanded, his voice a sandpapery whisper.

"I don't know," she told him truthfully. His eyes - a shocking electric blue - were wide and darting around wildly. They fell on Glitch; on what Glitch was holding. The man lunged for the glass, spilling most of what was left as he took it and raised it to his lips. He gulped greedily.

"Not so fast!" Glitch warned in vain. Apparently, the water was cold and the man's empty stomach was unprepared. He rolled to his side and retched into the grass. DeeDee rubbed his back, trying her best to give him some kind of comfort. He reached up and grasped her free hand tightly and pressed his face into her blue-jeaned thigh. His shoulders shook with harsh sobs. She looked to Glitch, who could only shrug helplessly. He began to pat the man's back as well, toffee-colored eyes filled with concern. She found herself whispering nonsensical words of comfort to the man, the stranger, making promises she knew would never be kept, hoping the sentiment would be what counted.


	5. Bad Attitudes All Around

**more Cain goodness, and not so goodness. heh. and our heroine gets a little ticked.**

**ps: ... why do you hate babies?**

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She had no idea of how long it actually took the man to calm down. It felt like hours and could well have been. When he stirred, glitch refilled the glass and DeeDee held it to the stranger's lips herself, forcing him to take only small sips. Once his thirst was slaked, he seemed to decide laying with his head in her lap was not where he wanted to be. He used Glitch's shoulder as a hand-hold and pulled himself upright, kneeling before her for a moment before trying to stand. Glitch rose, helping him get to his feet. Dee's own legs threatened to cramp up when she unfolded them, gaining her feet unsteadily. The stranger leaned on Glitch for support, which the dark-haired man gave freely. Apparently, though, the gray-covered man had no plans beyond getting to his feet. Again, DeeDee took over.

"Glitch, take him down to the pond and help him get cleaned up. I'll go into the house and try to find some towels or soap or something," she said. Glitch nodded and put himself wholeheartedly into the task. He stepped into the stranger and pulled the man's arm across his, Glitch's, shoulders, wrapping his other arm about the stranger's waist. She left the two making slow progress towards the water.

It was dark in the house, but the windows let in enough light that she would be able to find her way around. Passing through the great room, she could see into the kitchen and from the looks of the sink there was no running water in this house; no indoor plumbing. _Quaint. Right._ It was just as well she sent Glitch to the lake with the stranger - the pot-bellied stove in the kitchen had been knocked onto its side. A short hall lead from the great room and the first door was open. A quick glance told DeeDee that this was the boy's room. Small lead figurines crowded the top of the dresser, waiting for the child who so loved them to return. _Jesus, that's depressing! What are you trying to do?_ If she kept dwelling on the boy, it would only lead to distraction and possibly more tears. Neither of which would solve anything. She pushed it to the back of her mind, which was becoming crowded with all of the things she was trying not to think about.

The second door was a large linen closet. _Bingo!_ Inside were sheets, blankets, towels and even some pillows. On one bottom shelf she found bottles of what appeared to be shampoo and bars of soap wrapped in paper. She gathered up a bottle, bar of soap, and a few towels. She turned towards the last door, which was at the end of the hall. Obviously the master bedroom. She slowly walked towards it. This was the room that the man had shared with his wife. Dee Took a fortifying breath and turned the doorknob.

The room was oddly impersonal, no knickknacks or keepsakes decorated the space. There was only a large bed with a simple coverlet that looked like it could have been patchwork at one time, before years of dust had settled over it, and a large, plain armoire against one wall. She went to this and moved to open it. Her hand still just above the handle. Inside this upper portion, a person would hang their shirts so as not to wrinkle them. This is where she would find the man's shirts. But she would also see his wife's dresses. She bent instead to the drawers below. In the bottom drawer she found the man's pajamas and slacks. A pajama shirt would work just fine, she decided, and snatched the clothes and hurried from the room, closing the door behind her.

She found Glitch and the stranger by the pond, where there was a dock. Glitch was trying to help the man out of his clothes and looked rather uncomfortable about the whole thing. DeeDee brought her offerings and hoped she would not have to help. Seeing a complete stranger naked was a bad enough thought, but bathing him was an even worse one. The man glanced at her and seemed to make a decision. He firmly pushed Glitch's hands away and reached for the bundle Dee held. He then held up on hand, palm flat towards her. She got the idea and took Glitch by the hand, leading him back towards the house.

"He says his name is Cain," he told her. She was surprised the man had spoken at all.

She looked over at the TDESPHTL and felt a chill. She shivered. Glitch immediately stepped closer to her and began to rub her upper arms to warm her. Even though she wasn't cold, it helped, and she didn't stop him.

"So, he just had to watch as his family was destroyed over and over?"

"The most imaginative tortures are reserved for those who resist Azkadellia," Glitch intoned, solemnly. She was beginning to hate this Azkadellia person, whoever she was. For Glitch. For Cain, though he was a stranger.

… Not Quite for the Eastern Guild, yet.

She really wanted to lean back into Glitch and sap some of his warmth. That thought snapped her to full attention. She patted his hand as impersonally as she could and gestured to the cottage.

"I'm going to see if there is anything in the kitchen we can eat. Canned food or something. Maybe some matches for a fire," she told him. He perked up with a thought.

"I could go get fire wood!" he said, happy to be of use. She smiled, couldn't help it. He started away, but stopped and turned back.

"What if he…" the raven-haired man raised his eyebrows suggestively as he trailed off.

"He won't" she assured him. "But if he does, I'll yell."

This seemed to both satisfy and please Glitch. As he left, she watched him go with her head tilted in thought. Was he happy because she had said she'd call for him if she needed help?

In the kitchen there were indeed cans of food and silverware, even matches. Every plate in the place was in shards on the floor, though. And apparently, Glitch had found the only non-shattered glass or cup in the house. She went into the great room. There was a fireplace in there, which she could clean quickly enough. The could make a fire in it to cook whatever was in those cans. Plus, the cool breeze which had been so nice all day was now becoming chill. It would be cold tonight, but with the fire and blankets from the closet, they would be fine sleeping in the great room.

All three of them.

_Oh, dear. _What if the man, Cain, did not want them staying in his house? Would she and Glitch force the issue? Odd how she was thinking of herself and Glitch as a team, now. Worst case scenario, she would steal some of his blankets if he proved disagreeable.

These were the thoughts that ran through her head as she cleaned the fireplace and swept out the great room with a broom she'd found in the kitchen. Then, she took the blankets and pillows from the closet and stacked them in one corner, just in case. She then lined up the cans of food along the hearth. She recognized corn, which was both surprising and not, and a few cans of what were obviously some kind of beans. The rest were a mystery to her. She went back into the kitchen to sweep up the glass that littered the floor. Without a dustpan, she simply swept everything out the front door. She stood on the small porch and looked towards the woods for the tall, jester-like man. She jumped when she saw Cain in the yard, staring at her, a look of pain pinching his face. He carried the towels, two of which were various shades of dull gray. His skin was a normal color again and his hair a shocking white-blonde. He looked like he might fall over.

"Mr. Cain," she croaked, her throat constricted in concern and, yes, a touch of fear. He seemed to come back to himself at her voice and let out a sigh. "Are you alright?"

The question was utterly ludicrous (of course he wasn't alright!) but he nodded shortly and gave a little grunt of affirmation.

"I was just cleaning up," she said, lamely. "It was a real mess inside."

He did not respond and they stood staring at each other in uncomfortable silence. Then, with a crash and a shout, Glitch emerged from the trees, his arms piled high with wood. Piled so high, in fact, he could not see around them and would periodically turn sideways to see where he was going. DeeDee could not even see how he managed to pile them up so high. Cain spared him a glance and headed for the house.

"There's firewood piled up out the back door, from the kitchen," he said. DeeDee moved out of his way as he went into the cottage. Glitch huffed indignantly.

"Could have said something before!" he called after the other man. He brought his sticks into the house anyway and dropped them next to the fireplace. They were small enough that they could be used for kindling at any rate. DeeDee set to starting a fire, while Glitch sorted through the cans beside her, making sounds of approval and disgust according to what they contained. After some trial and error (after all, it had been years since DeeDee went through her childhood pyromania phase) there was a fine blaze going in the hearth. She felt rather proud of herself and gazed into the flames for a moment before heading out the kitchen door and bringing in an arm-load of split logs. She nearly had a heart attack when a creature she could only assume was the O.Z.'s version of a spider skittered across her hand.

Glitch was looking at the cans intently. He looked up at DeeDee, then back at the cans as though he were trying to figure something out. He started to speak, then stopped, then started again. Then stopped.

"What is it?"

"How… How do we open them?" he asked. She slapped herself in the forehead. She had completely forgotten to look for a can opener in the kitchen. She sighed and headed back into the kitchen. It was much darker now, as the suns were setting, but she managed to find an old-fashioned single-piece can opener under a cabinet and used the broom to pull it out. She also found a dented pot, which was handy. Now, they could empty at least one can into it and have two glasses instead of the one.

As she and Glitch set about making dinner, Cain was nowhere to be seen. She could hear soft sounds coming from the boy's room and tried to pretend she didn't. To make matters worse, outside a storm was kicking up. DeeDee gave a small involuntary shudder when she heard the thunder. Wind whipped at the small cottage, making it creak and moan. They had closed the shutters over the broken windows, but still, a thin draft managed to creep into the great room.

Oddly, Glitch, who seemed so clueless, was ever noticing DeeDee's discomforts. Odder still, he would react to them. This was something the girl was not used to. Back in the real world, the _Other Side_, she'd been an outsider and ignored for the most part by most everyone she'd ever met. And those who did not ignore her were generally unfavorable in their attitude towards her. It was something she had become accustomed to, even comfortable with on some level. Glitch's concern was both nice and disconcerting at the same time.

"What's wrong?" he asked, firelight making his tawny eyes almost yellow. She shrugged, not wanting to talk about it, but he kept looking at her in that way; like he actually cared. It was starting to bother her. A rather uncharitable reaction, she knew, but involuntary.

"I don't like storms," she told him, shortly. He cocked his head to one side.

"Why?" Before she could answer, he went on. "I mean, sure, they are loud and flashy and distracting, but not really dangerous. It's not like we are out running around in them, holding up antennae."

He laughed engagingly, but she found no humor in it.

"It's the tornadoes that bother me," she confessed. That was putting it mildly. She was abjectly petrified of tornadoes and had been ever since she was a child, though until the night before, she'd never actually been in the path of one. Which was a small miracle in itself. _Please, stop talking._

"Tornadoes?" he blinked in confusion. "Twisters, you mean?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

He laughed again. He laughed as though she just told him she was afraid of moths. He laughed at her.

She quickly looked away, feeling the heat in her cheeks and the hollowness in her belly. Suddenly, she wasn't hungry anymore, though she had not eaten since the afternoon before she went to work and she'd been starving only a moment before. Again, in that discomfiting way, he picked it up.

"I'm sorry, DeeDee," he said, sobered. "I didn't mean to laugh at you, but there's no reason to be afraid. There are no twisters in the O.Z."

This caught her attention. "None?"

"Nope. Never. Twisters only happen on the Other Side because… Because…" he trailed off, eyes glassy, and she knew what was coming. "Oh, food! I'm starving. Where are we?"

She explained to him they were in Cain's cottage.

The suns were well set by the time Cain reappeared. It was fully dark and only the fire in the hearth lit the room. Under other circumstances it would have been cozy, but not this night. They had waited for him before eating, the food resting close enough to the fire to stay warm. DeeDee wondered if she should warn him to eat slowly, but he seemed cognizant now in a way he had not been with the water, so she said nothing. He took a can of corn and some kind of meat-product called SumYum. It reminded her of Spam.

Cain sat against the wall opposite her and Glitch. He seemed to hesitate before taking the first bite, corn. When he did, he seemed melt for a moment; eyes closed, breath let out on a sigh of pleasure. It made DeeDee feel uncomfortable and sad, but also imparted an odd sense of happiness completely on his behalf. Glitch elbowed her gently and passed her a can of SumYum, which did, in fact, taste much like Spam.

As soon as she'd finished her meal of processed mystery meat and corn and unknown beans, with a cold can of the most delicious fruit she'd ever tasted (which she savored much the way Cain did every bite he took), a deadening lethargy took hold of her, dragging her down onto the floor against her will. Glitch provided her with a pillow and tucked a soft, warm blanket around her. She was vaguely aware that Cain was watching this, thought covertly, and she didn't want him to get the wrong idea about her and Glitch. She barely knew the man after all. Though, why should she care what Cain, who she knew even less than Glitch, thought about her? She was too tired to think this over and the blanket was so warm and she was so tired. She decided she would not fall asleep and leave herself completely vulnerable to two men she did not know. She would simply stay awake all night.

The next thing DeeDee knew, it was morning and Glitch was prodding her awake, offering another can of SumYum. _Breakfast of champions_, she snarked internally.

"There is a tree growing through the hole in the outhouse," he informed her, apropos of nothing. She shook her head and laughed at the absurdity of the statement. It turned out to be true though, which made it funnier.

Outside, DeeDee went to find Cain and thank him for his hospitality, which was a little silly, yes, but she felt compelled to do it none the less. She also planned to ask him if there was anything she could do to help him. They were going to Central City, after all, which seemed like a hub of some kind. Perhaps he had friends or other family there she could inform of his… predicament.

Glitch had told her he was out by the pond, so that was where she was headed. She froze in her tracks. There was a man out on the dock, but he was so jarringly changed from the one she had seen the day before, for a moment she thought it was a different person entirely. Then he turned and she recognized the ice blue eyes. She had seen him bearded and filthy, seen him bearded and clean, seen him broken and bloody on the holographic recording, but this was something else entirely. He'd shaved and she could see his face clearly for the first time. Square jaw, Romanesque nose, pale rose lips, eyebrows drawn together as if in angry contemplation… and those eyes. He wore a powder blue shirt under a leather vest and off-white pants that were almost indecently tight, with boots. In a word, Cain was breathtaking.

She just stared at him for a moment, completely floored by the transformation. He looked at her and she felt herself flush and impulsively said the first thing that came to her mind.

"How long were you trapped in there?" _Stupid!_

He scowled as he walked passed her. "Since that was a sapling," he answered, gesturing towards a tree that was at least thirty feet tall.

"_Christ_," she breathed. How long did it take a tree to grow that high? Ten years? Glitch gazed at the tree in wonder. She couldn't even fathom it. After a few paces, she heard him stop and sigh. After a pause he spoke haltingly, as though he were trying to force out the words.

"Much obliged for the help." Then he continued walking. She shook off her shock and remembered all the things she needed to say to him before they parted ways.

"You're welcome, Mr. Cain," she said, following after him. He stooped by the side of the house and brushed aside some weeds. "My name is DeeDee and this is-"

"I know," he cut her off. "A headcase."

Glitch gave a sarcastic chuckle. "I _have_ a proper name, you know." He paused, clearly disconcerted. Then, he said, clearly upset, "And… when I remember it, I will tell you."

DeeDee's heart went out to the poor man. To not even be able to remember your name. Glitch was right. Life in the O.Z. was tougher and tougher. She took his hand and squeezed it. He squeezed back.

Cain had pulled a metal box from its hiding place beneath the house and opened it. He took out a gun belt with a shoulder strap and holster and went about putting it on.

"What's a headcase?" she asked.

"It's what the government does to reeducate criminals," he told her. She felt the bottom drop out again. Criminals? Glitch? She couldn't believe it. "They rip out their brains. Make them prisoners of their own minds."

She turned to Glitch, who was looking embarrassed and guilty, his cheeks bright with unsure shame. She patted his arm to show she did not think any less of him.

"Isn't that right, convict?" Cain jabbed. He stood and pocketed what looked like an old west marshal's star, then ducked into the house. Glitch took offense and released her hand to walk towards Cain.

"Hey! Whoa! I ain't no convict," he insisted, angry. "And just in case I am, it was a bogus charge; a frame job, I'm sure of it."

She knew she shouldn't be so trusting, it would only lead to a let down when the bottom dropped out, but she wanted to believe in Glitch. She wanted that very much.

When Cain emerged a moment later, he was wearing a long leather duster of a charcoal gray shade, and carrying a lighter gray cowboy-like hat. _Who is this guy, Wyatt Earp?_ It suited him, though, she had to admit.

"Well, I'll see you down the road," he said in parting, donning the hat. She hurried over to where he and Glitch stood.

"Actually, a road is what we're looking for," she said. "We need to find the Brick Route to Central City." Glitch nodded along with her. "Do you know of it?"

Cain wasn't looking at her. He was checking the chambers in the six shot revolver. "Yeah," he said, absently. "It's where Zero was headed after.." he trailed off as though realizing what he was saying and looked at her like he wanted to lie to her, but reluctantly decided against it. The name Zero meant nothing to her, but when he said, "It's where I'm headed now," she put two and two together and decided Zero was the man in the holograph. He walked away quickly, indicating he did not want company, but she knew she couldn't find her way with only Glitch, as sweet as he was.

"Great, we'll go with you," she said brightly, pretending she did not get the hint. _Please, don't say no._

"I got business," he said, not stopping. "Besides, I don't travel with kids. Or convicts."

_Kid?_ "Uh," she said incredulously. "I'm not a _kid_. And the people who attacked your family came to my house, too. I'm just trying to get to my mom."

"And I'm looking for my brain," Glitch chimed in.

"And maybe we can help you fi-" she started, but Cain rounded on her like an angry dog.

"Maybe you can what? Help what? Find what?" he snapped angrily. "My wife? My boy? _They're gone._ Probably just like your mother is."

That sentence, said out loud, flat and harsh, sent a spike of pain and fear right though her chest. She wanted to slap him for saying it, but she couldn't move yet. She just stood, rooted to the ground, as he walked away. But then, he stopped, too, and dropped his head forward, growling in frustration. He turned, his expression regretful, his eyes apologetic. She still wanted to hit him, maybe more than before.

"Look," he began, trying to sound reasonable. "Nothing personal kid, but look at you. First sign of trouble and you're just gonna cut and run."

Her self-restraint snapped and she couldn't hold back all of her anger. "Nothing personal," she spat the words back at him. "But fuck you."

His eyes widened slightly in surprise. "When I found you, you were in a fucking SumYum can, Jack. You don't know me." She knew she was sneering at him in distaste and maybe he didn't strictly deserve it given the ordeal he'd just been through, but fuck him, she'd been through an ordeal, too.

"Come on, Glitch," she said, taking his hand. "We'll find our own way."

She saw him nod proudly at Cain out of the corner of her eye and the two walked (well, Glitch walked, DeeDee stalked) off across the field.

"The way?" she heard Cain say behind her. She consciously chose to ignore him. "The way leads through the fields of the papay."

Glitch stopped short, bringing her to a halt. He looked back at the blonde man. "Papay?"

He looked to her and shook his head. _Son of a…_

"What?" she shouted, completely fed up with the whole situation. "_What?_ I've been shoved into a cyclone, strung up by half-retarded turkey midgets, and shot at by S&M rejects! How much worse could fucking _papays_ be?"

"I've seen 'em gnaw people in half inside thirty seconds," Cain informed her as though he were dispensing weather information.

"Great," was the first word into her head, and thus, out of her mouth. She closed her eyes and sighed, feeling defeated. "I hate this fucking place."

She heard Cain sigh, sounding as though he'd lost a bet. "Zipper-head, keep your mouth shut. Kid, you stay behind me."

_Kid, again._ She glared at the back of his head. Through it all, he hadn't even turned around. "Why the sudden change of heart?" she asked unkindly.

"Believe me," he told her, flatly. "Heart has nothing to do with it." He started off in the opposite directed she and Glitch had been walking.

"You don't say," she snapped. After a moment, she followed him, because, really, what choice did she have?


	6. Hot and Cold

**I swear to God if i don't get major Feeback after this chapter... well.. i just might never have anyone kiss ever. so, nuh.**

**PS: the babies want to know, "Why, God, why?"**

**PPS: Enjoy... mwahahahahahahaha...**

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"Why are you only wearing one shoe?" Cain asked, out of the blue, as they tromped across another open field. DeeDee was not quite ready to let bygones be bygones, yet.

"It's all I could afford. I'm saving up for the other one," she said, snappishly. Beside her, Glitch snorted out his laughter. Cain didn't speak to her again until they reached what appeared to be a very vast and very dead orchard. A few yards in, she saw some goop on the side of one of the trees, and she'd always been the curious type.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing.

"What's what? Hey!" Cain caught her wrist and pulled her hand back. "Don't touch that."

"I wasn't going to touch it," she told him indignantly, pulling out of his grasp. "I'm not an idiot."

He ignored her comment. "That's a predigestive enzyme the papay runners use to tenderize their meat."

"Oh, lovely," she said queasily, making a face. He smirked.

"Come on, let's go."

That was when she noticed the cocoon. Or what she thought was a cocoon. It was huge, taking up the whole base of a tree not far from where they stood. And it was moving. She could hear something inside, whimpering. From what Cain said, these papay things were known to eat people. There could be someone, a person, trapped in there. She went to take a closer look, knowing it was probably a bad idea. Sometimes a bad idea is all you have to go with. She heard Cain sigh in annoyance. Glitch followed after her. As she got closer, she could see the vague shape of a human face pressed against the wall of the cocoon.

"There's someone in there," she said.

"An advance hunter party must have snared it," Cain told her. "We'd better get out of here before their friends come back."

The person in the cocoon moaned piteously. "We can't just leave them here!" she insisted. Cain sighed, yet again.

"You snatch dinner from a runner, you'd best be prepared to be its replacement," he told her with finality. She turned back to him, eyebrow raised.

"But it'll die!" she said. He was unmoved.

"Let's go."

"Can I borrow that razor of yours?" she asked, knowing he'd taken it with him from the cottage. He gave her a stern look.

"Just leave it be," he advised firmly. He was probably right and she should leave well enough alone, but all she could think of was the fact that inside that cocoon was some poor person, waiting to die, even now being slowly digested by those "predigestive enzymes". She set her stance, feet apart, arms crossed.

"I know you haven't known me very long, but _you_ of all people should know I'm not the type to just _leave it be_," she told him, just as firmly. Adding, "If I were, you wouldn't be standing here right now."

He looked at her for a moment, as if sizing her up, then, with a mirthless chuckle, relented. He took out his razor and stepped passed her, smirking. "Given that you and Zippy were going the wrong way, you wouldn't be standing here either, kid."

Well, she had to give him that.

He flick the blade out and sliced open the side of the cocoon. What DeeDee was expecting and what she got were two different things. The creature that leapt out of the cocoon was not happy and, most definitely, not human. _It's a fucking Wookie!_ a voice in her head shouted in shock. The being before her was humanoid, but was covered in long, brown fur. He had whiskers for crying out loud! And, as was said, he as not happy and he was looking directly at her. He growled and roared and snarled and even though she could feel the indifference coming off of Cain, she was afraid. Cain would probably just let the thing kill her, so he could be rid of her, and poor Glitch (who was standing frozen a few feet away) wouldn't be able to stop it. Then, he'd be all alone.

Cain glanced at her and his whole demeanor changed. He snatched his gun from the holster and aimed for the monster's head. The beast immediately went from roar to whimper, lifting its hands to tuck under it's chin like a frightened school girl. DeeDee wasn't sure whether to laugh, faint, or feel like a complete ass. She went for door number three.

"You want that bad attitude drippin' out of your ears?" Cain asked the creature, threateningly. For the first time since she'd met him, DeeDee was glad Cain was there. Then, all Hell broke loose.

A creature that looked like a cross between a hyena and a shrubbery came darting out of nowhere, shrieking, and latched onto Cain's leg. DeeDee screamed and fell back. Glitch pulled her to her feet as a gunshot rang out and the thing fell.

"Run!" Cain commanded. Glitch pulled her with him, leading her away. The Wookie had taken off as soon as the papay attacked and was well ahead of them. DeeDee looked back. Cain was running behind them, limping on his injured leg. DeeDee tried to go back and help him, but Glitch wouldn't let her. Even if he had, Cain saw her struggling with the headcase and yelled, "Go! Run, kid!"

He turned to fire at another papay. They seemed to be coming from everywhere, now. Shrieking in that horribly high pitch, like nails on a chalk board. Glitch dragged her on and she stumbled, having trouble keeping up with his long-legged stride. The orchard cleared suddenly and they found themselves standing on the edge of a cliff. _Sweet Jesus!_ DeeDee felt dizzy just looking at the edge, let alone _over_ it.

"Wrong turn!" Glitch wailed pitifully. Cain came up behind them.

"Go!" he ordered, firing off another two rounds. _Go? Go __**where?!**_

"The fall might kill us," Glitch protested.

"Well they _definitely_ will!" Cain shouted back. Then the Wookie leapt off the cliff and went down… and down and down. Oh, God, she couldn't do this. She was okay with heights, not the falls. Not the falls!

Cain fired off his last shot. "Go!" he ordered, joining them on the edge. He stood on DeeDee's left, Glitch was on her right.

"I can't!" she yelled and tried to pull away, blind fear overriding her self control. Glitch pulled her back and Cain took hold of her left hand with a vice-like grip.

"On the count of three," he told her.

"No! _No!_" she struggled to get away from the two men trying to save her.

"One!" Cain started.

"Three!" Glitch yelled and they jumped, pulling her down with them. As she fell, DeeDee's eyes clouded over and she might have screamed. She didn't know. She felt the fall; it felt like dying. She blacked out and never even knew when she hit the frigid water.

**xxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx.**

DeeDee felt warm and cozy and floaty. It was rather nice, actually. She also felt something else. Some one touching her… _there._ That place no one was allowed to touch, they taught you that in school. That _secret_ place. And that was rather nice, too.

She thought she might have moaned. She also thought she heard a familiar voice speaking deliciously low in her ear. Familiar voice and a familiar scent, like hay and dirt and sugar. It was all very comfortable, very snug. And very, very nice.

And then he ruined it.

"Hey!"

The one touching her jumped and either leapt, or was pulled, away from her - leaving her cold and uncomfortable.

"What? I… What happened?" Glitch blathered, his voice high with agitation. There was the sound of a someone, a body, being slammed against something hard and Glitch gasped in pain.

"What the hell were you doing to her?" Cain demanded. He sounded raspy, like he was speaking through clenched teeth.

"I don't.. I woke up. And I was undressed. And she was undressed. So, I… That's what you're _supposed _to do what you're laying down with a naked girl!" He gasped again, from shock this time, by the sound of it. "Oh! I forgot."

He moaned in despair. "Ooh, I did it this time! I'm sorry! Oh, I'm so sorry."

DeeDee struggled to open her eyes.

"Glitch, I swear-"

The way Cain suddenly stopped talking, DeeDee knew she had actually spoken that time. This gave her faith in the idea that she could open her eyes. So, she did.

"Kid," he said. "DeeDee, you okay?" The blonde man was kneeling at her side, pulling the coats, his and Glitch's by the look of them, back over her. Whether they'd been tugged off before or after Cain had walked in on Glitch, she didn't know.

"Fine." The word was a bare whisper, like sheer fabrics brushing against one another.

"You sure?" he looked pointedly at the headcase, his voice hard as iron. Dee weakly grasped his hand to reassure him.

"Fine," came the sheer whisper again.

"I'm going to restart the fire," he told her and went to do just that, tossing the other man a hard glare as he did so.

Glitch dropped to his knees at DeeDee's side. She noticed for the first time that he was bare-chested. She took in the sight absently. His skin was smooth and unblemished, pale like his face. There was no hair on his torso, save a small, black, course trail that started just below his navel and disappeared into the trousers hung low on his hips. He took her hand and bowed low over it, as if to genuflect. He sounded as though he might be trying not to sob; or trying to stop.

"Glitch," she breathed. He looked up, fawn-colored eyes teary.

"I'm so sorry, DeeDee. I glitched. I forgot. I forgot."

She tried to smile, but was unsure of how much success she had. "It's okay."

And, oddly, it was. She knew he hadn't been trying to hurt her, or use her. Glitch was simply not capable of doing that sort of thing. It had been an accident. She wanted to reach up and brush away his tears, but found she could not lift her arm. He sniffled pathetically and wiped at his eyes himself, then retucked the coats around her, careful not to touch her skin. As he did this, DeeDee tried to find a definition for the emotion she was feeling - anything other than the disappointment her mind was trying to convince her it was.

Fifteen minutes later, Cain had the fire going and had taken a can from the pack he carried and heated it over the flames. He brought it to where she lay and glared at Glitch until the other man moved away from her. Cain knelt at her side then, positioning himself between her and the headcase. He held the can, which turned out to be some kind of broth, to her lips. Not only was it quite delicious, but the warmth spread wonderfully from her stomach outward. She felt almost like her old self again, the terrible cold weakness dissipating.

"Why am I naked?" she asked, still blushing from when the realization that she was and that both men and the Wookie (who was sitting a few yards away from the fire) had seen her thus. Cain cleared his throat.

"We got separated in the river. I couldn't hold onto you. Me and the headcase got to shore and saw you heading down river. So, we went after you. It took us twenty minutes to find you, caught up on some branches where the river got calmer."

"We thought you were dead, DeeDee," Glitch whispered. "You were all blue."

"Well, you were breathing," Cain said, as if to disprove Glitch's claim. "But you were hypothermic. We had to warm you up fast."

He gestured at her, in lieu of continuing the recap. She blinked at him for a moment, the scenario playing out in her head. Obviously her clothes, which hung on a branch near the fire to dry, had been soaked. What made her cheeks flush anew was that Cain and Glitch's clothes would have been soaked as well. They looked dry now, their coats felt dry. She looked away, feeling a strange tingling warmth spread all over. Her heartbeat pulsed against her skin. She'd been pushing thoughts to the back of her mind all day, but this one would not be shoved aside. She had been naked, pressed between Glitch (who's touches were so comforting - and frequent.) and Cain (possible the most attractive man she'd even seen in person.), who were both also undressed. She swallowed hard and tried to get herself under control.

The incident with Glitch and his wandering hands made more sense now. Once she was out of danger, Cain had gone to get a fire going, then went off to find more wood while Glitch stayed behind to keep her warm. Her stomach dipped remembering how his touch had felt. Her thighs squeezed together involuntarily at the arousal the memory provoked. He must have been hard against her backside. She shivered. Had Cain also reacted to her? _Enough!_

"I'd like to get dressed now," she croaked, not looking at either of them. Cain nodded and put the can down, then went to retrieve her clothing. He grabbed Glitch roughly by the arm and pulled him away. Both men stood with their backs facing her a few yards off as she quickly redressed. Her other shoe was gone now, along with one sock. She gave up on footwear. Her jacket was also missing, which was unfortunate, but the day was warm and sunny and she would be fine. She took a moment to brush her hair back from her face, steadying her nerves. She cleared her throat.

"Okay," she called to them. Glitch went over to wear his shirts were still hanging up near the fire and began to get dressed. Cain came back to her and stood closer than she was entirely comfortable with, his head bent towards hers.

"We're leaving him here," he told her. It was not a question, it was a statement of fact. DeeDee frowned.

"No, we aren't," she said, firmly. Cain stared at her in disbelief.

"After what-" she cut him off.

"It was an accident. Glitch would never hurt me on purpose. I doubt he'd ever hurt anyone!"

"He's a criminal, DeeDee," he used her given name, probably for emphasis. She looked dubious.

"I find that hard to believe," she said. When he would have contradicted her, she added, "Even if he _were_ one, he's not that person now."

Cain set his jaw, looking like he wanted to beat some sense into her. "I'm not going anywhere without him," she finished, looking directly into his eyes. She didn't know why she said it, as if Cain had any qualms about leaving a troublesome bit of baggage like her behind. But he didn't say, "Fine, your funeral," he only glared at her a moment more before turning and stalking off to grab his coat. He started gathering his supplies and shoving them roughly into his bag. DeeDee's gaze fell on the Wookie, sitting off alone, looking for all the world like it was crying. It's fur was still dripping. She sighed. The thing had scared the crap out of her, but hadn't done any real harm and she couldn't blame it for reacting irrationally after being stuck in that cocoon for so long. She wondered if it was feeling badly for it.

"Hey, do you want to come closer to the fire? Get warm?" she called gently. The creature glanced over it's shoulder at her.

"Should have left me… to die," it said, _he_ said, sorrowfully. Now, that was a surprise. Behind her she heard Glitch mutter.

"Great, a basket case." As if he were one to talk, she thought. Besides, the Wookie would fit right in, they were a trio of "cases" themselves. A head case, a hard case, and, herself, a charity case. The word case started to loose meaning to her, as words do when one repeats them over and over. She went over the to the sad Wookie.

"Hey," she said, softly, so as not to startle him. She reached out to touch the thing's shoulder, offering comfort (not something she would have found herself doing had it been human, she thought. _Odd._) The creature growled in warning, but she knew his bark was worse than his bite, if his reaction to Cain's pistol had been any indication. When her fingers brushed his fur, the beast turned and took hold of her hand, snarling, but held it so gently, she knew it would not hurt her. Cain and Glitch, on the other had, had no such knowledge and both came rushing to her aid; Cain with his six-shooter drawn.

"Stay right there!" he warned. Dee held up a stilling hand.

"It's okay. We're all friends here," she told them. The beast was now caressing her hand in an absent way and in her head she felt a gentle prodding, which felt oddly like when a small child tugs on your sleeve to gain your attention. The creature looked at her, his eyes full of understanding.

"You are sad," he said, which shocked her, because she had not actually, consciously been feeling sad, but was deeper down. "You miss…your mother."

And she did. She did so much it hurt.

"She misses you," he told her and she believed him. She sniffed back a tear.

"My name's DeeDee. What's yours?"

The creature let her go and spelled out R-A-W in the sand at his feet.

"Raw," Glitch read. He shrugged. "Well, it's certainly to the point."

The creature lifted a lip in a small, silent snarl at the man. As he turned, DeeDee saw a gash on the back of his head. She cringed. It looked painful.

"You're hurt," she said, as if he didn't know already, reaching out for him. He shied away from her hand.

"He's a viewer," Cain said. Another term that meant nothing to her. Glitch piped in with the definition.

"Viewers are like psychics," he informed her. "But instead of seeing with their minds, they see with their hearts."

DeeDee turned sympathetic eyes on the beast. The poor thing. She thought of herself as a bit empathic, maybe, but to have to feel everything with your _heart_… life must be very painful for this poor creature.

"Azka-D abducts his kind," Glitch went on. Another mention of Azkadellia; another reason to hate her. "Has her alchemists suck the second sight right out of them."

"He should come with us," DeeDee said, not sure why. She had no idea what use she could be to someone like Raw, but she couldn't stomach just leaving him here, alone in the woods. Cain scoffed at her.

"Look, I don't know about where you came from, kid. But if you have any interesting in staying alive in the O.Z., you'd better learn on thing real quick: Trust no one."

She gave him a look of bored incredulity. As if where she came from you just left your doors wide open and let creepy guys in trench coats baby-sit your kids. His real problem was that he _had_ trusted someone and they'd betrayed him, she figured, but did not say. She wasn't a cruel person. He turned away from her gaze, but when he tried to take a step, his injured leg gave out and he went down with an exclamation of pain. Dee and Glitch hurried to him, but he brushed their helping hands away, trying to keep his pride. Glitch pulled aside Cain's coat to show the blood seeping through his pants.

"Let's hope those runners don't have fang pox," he said, ominously. DeeDee didn't know what fang pox were, but they didn't sound good. Raw moved closer and knelt at Cain's feet.

"Heal wound," he offered with a reassuring nod. "Soothe."

He reached for Cain's wound. Cain protested in vain. "What are you doing? Hey, wait. Wait. Don- Aah!" He threw back his head with a shout of pain, then hissed between his teeth. Raw concentrated and Cain's sounds of pain slacked off. The beast's face slowly softened into a gentle smile.

"Brave man," he said, nodding. "Good man. Tin man."

Raw looked to DeeDee, but she had no idea what this meant. Was it because of the dive suit/ iron maiden she'd found Cain in? Glitch reacted as though someone had revealed a great truth.

"Oh! I might have known you were a _Tin Man_!" he exclaimed, scoffing and shaking his head. "What with that attitude."

"What's a Tin Man?" Dee asked, thinking she should put on a name tag that said "Hi! My Name Is: Outsider who has no idea what you're talking about". Glitch smirked.

"It's what they call policemen in Central City," he said, then paused. "At least, I think it is."

Her eyes widened. _Son of a bitch._ "You're a _cop_?"

Cain looked up at her and nodded. "I was. Until Zero found out I was part of the Resistance and, well, you saw the rest."

So, that was what the whole "trust no one" thing was about. Someone had ratted him out to Zero and it had lead to his family's destruction and his own personal Hell in that tin can. Poor Cain. The blonde man blinked in surprise and prodded at his wound, which apparently no longer hurt. He paused before forcing out a "thanks" to Raw, who simply nodded. DeeDee offered him a hand to help him to his feet, surprised when he actually took it. So, Cain the cop. It was both surprising and completely appropriate.

"We should get moving," he said. DeeDee felt immediately relieved, for he'd said "we" and not "I" and he was not going to leave the other three to fend for themselves. Glitch donned his coat and Cain snatched up his pack. He glanced down at her feet and raised an eyebrow.

"You gonna be able to walk okay?" he asked sounding like he only half cared. She nodded, biting back a snaky reply. He lead doused the fire and kicked dirt over it, then lead the way off through the woods. Glitch popped up by her side, looking unsure of himself. Raw brought up the rear, trailing a few yards behind. Glitch did not try to take her hand. She wanted to take his, wanted to let him know they were still friends, but she was afraid that if she touched him it would remind her of what had happened beneath those coats less than an hour before. She needed to put a little more time, and forgetfulness, between herself and that moment before she would be able to take his hand again.


	7. Homecoming

**And now, our heroine learns some harsh truths. (and takes it a little differently than her mini-series counterpart)**

**PS: ... babies.**

Ten minutes or so later they were walking along an old road lined with yellow bricks, but it looked abandoned and was just as much dirt and weeds as brick. Cain took a quick look up and down the road to acclimate himself, then struck out to the right.

"West," he said, simply.

"How far is Central City, do you think?" she asked Cain.

"Not far. Few hours maybe," he said over his shoulder. She was relieved. She would not have wanted to spend the night out in the woods. Especially if it got cold again, the way it had the previous night. She no longer had a jacket after all. She stumbled on a sharp rock.

"I would have thought it was farther," she commented to Glitch.

"Oh, the roads in the Outer Zone operate on a different planar level from the rest of the world. It never takes more than a day to travel anywhere, so long as you are on a catalogued road," he said. Magic. Right, she'd forgotten. In the O.Z., magic was real, apparently. They lapsed into a companionable silence.

After a while, she glanced up and saw that Cain had pulled rather far ahead of them on the road. Because of her bare feet, DeeDee had been carefully choosing her steps, avoiding sharp rocks and sticks, which had slowed her down. Glitch had slowed his own long stride to stay even with her. Raw had actually passed the two of them and was closer to Cain on the road. She jogged for a moment to catch up, afraid the tin man might change his mind and leave her and Glitch behind. She stubbed her toe on a rock and stumbled.

"How about a break, Cain?" Glitch requested. The blonde man didn't even glance back.

"No time," he said and kept walking.

"Oh, come on, tin man!" Glitch snapped. "Have a heart."

Cain turned and walked back towards Glitch like he might strike the man. DeeDee quickly stepped between them.

"We could _all_ use a rest," she insisted. Glitch moved to the side and sat on a post that stood on the side of the road. DeeDee took the opportunity to motion Cain away. She needed to talk to him out of Glitch's earshot.

"Would you please stop it with Glitch," she hissed. The tall blonde frowned at her.

"Look, I understand he's your friend and-"

"Actually," she interrupted. "I've known him about five more minutes than you."

Her admission stopped him and those ice blue eyes clouded with confusion.

"What I _do_ know is that this animosity between the two of you serves absolutely no purpose. All it does is cause problems and slow us down," she admonished. He didn't say anything, didn't even nod, so she had no idea if he took her words to heart or not. He simply walked away.

She turned to Glitch and saw what was carved into the stone post on which he sat. Central City. And a decorative symbol; a swirl, like a whirlpool, within a diamond, within a box. It was familiar. It should have been, she'd seen her mother doodle it countless times on a scrap of paper as she talked on the phone. She'd asked her once what the symbol was. "_Home,"_ her mother replied. "_All life's answers are down the old road home." _It had been such an odd thing to say, DeeDee had never forgotten it.

"Did you just say 'Old Road'?" Cain asked. She hadn't even been aware that she spoke. He was eying her suspiciously. "That's what the locals call the brick road. I thought you said you'd never been here before."

"I haven't," she told him, still in shock. "But my mother… She used to drawn that symbol. She said it was home."

"Well, I think there might be a town-" before he finished the sentence, DeeDee was off and running down the road.

"Wait!" Cain called after her, but she didn't stop. A town. Home. Her mother was close, she knew it. She could _feel_ it. She could heard Cain and the other behind her, catching up, so she ran faster, fearing they might try to stop her. Just ahead the road forked, a smaller path leading away from the brick route towards a hill. She took the fork.

"Kid, stop!" Cain called. Glitch shouted, "DeeDee!"

She stumbled her way over the hill and fell on the way down, sliding along the wet grass. She came to a stop before a large billboard which read: Everything is better in Milltown. Her mother's home town. Her mom had only ever mentioned Milltown in passing and would never elaborate on it, now DeeDee knew why.

"She was from here," she said, more to herself than the others, who had finally caught up. She was having trouble processing this new information. Her mother was from the Outer Zone, not Earth. Why would she leave her home and live the life she had on Earth, in that awful small town. DeeDee had to find her. She headed passed the sign.

Milltown looked like one of those dilapidated ghost towns you see in slasher flicks. There was even a 1920's looking pick up parked, rusted nearly through, in the street in front of what looked like a general store.

"What happened here?" Glitch asked, awed.

"Milltown's been erased," Cain told him. "Azkadellia's term for cleansing history."

Had Azkadellia caused her mother to leave her home? And, what did this mean for DeeDee? Had her mother stayed, would she have been born in Milltown and grown up in the O.Z.? Was this really _her_ home, as well?

"Uh oh. We shouldn't be here" Cain said forebodingly. He gestured towards a sign with a skull X-ed out in red and the letters NHA. "No humans allowed."

She had wandered farther into town, towards what looked like a saloon. "DeeDee!" Cain called, hurrying towards her. She wouldn't let him take her away, she decided. She had to find her mother.

Suddenly, they were surrounded. People started coming out of buildings everywhere. The word people only half applied to them, they looked like sci-fi rejects; part human, part machine. Each held some sort of weapon, from pitchforks to pickaxes

"Oh, hey guys," Glitch stuttered nervously behind her. "We were just passing through. We were just passing through. We were jus-"

Cain slapped him on the chest to end his broken record act. The double doors to the saloon slammed open and a being that resembled a metal grub with spindly robotic arms, topped off with a human head and shoulders, floated (yes, _floated_) out over the steps.

"Stoke the pyre!" the thing called to it's compatriots, who cheered in response.

"Pyre?" Glitch choked out. "Could we talk about this?"

"Azkadellia's invaders must be made an example of!" the leader decreed.

"What?! I don't even know Azkadellia." DeeDee shouted. "I hate this fucking place. _Everyone_ is homicidal!" She threw her hands up in defeat. This was just too much. "Is there _one_ person in the O.Z. who _doesn't_ want to kill me?!"

She saw Glitch raise his hand out of the corner of her eye.

The floating being looked at her curiously.

"You who spoke. What is your name?"

"DeeDee," she said, not liking the way it was looking her over.

"Your voice patterns are familiar," it informed her.

"Does that mean you aren't going to kill me and my friends?" she asked, probably lacking the proper amount of deference. A door off to the side of the building opened.

"Peanut, you know I don't like it when you curse," her mother said, coming down the stairs. There was a man with her, who she had never seen before.

"Mom!" the girl cried, rushing forward and into her mother's arms. "I was so scared I'd never find you."

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine now that you're here," her mother assured. DeeDee looked at her. There was something different. Her mother's eyes, always with that little hint of desperate loneliness in their depths were clear and completely happy for the first time in DeeDee's life. She thought she finally understood why. "You're home."

Her mother smiled. "Not just mine."

What felt like anticipation rose up inside DeeDee. Was it true?

"You know how you always felt like you didn't fit in on the Other Side?" her mother asked. She nodded. "Well, those voice patterns Father View recalled were your mother's."

"Yours?"

"No, not mine. Your real mother's."

And the bottom drops out. Father View, the floating grub-man, suggested to her mother (not her mother?) that she explain to DeeDee in private. He promised that her friends would remain unharmed. DeeDee allowed herself to be led away, unable to think clearly from the shock of the bomb her mother (her mother?) had just dropped.

"What do you mean my 'real' mother?" DeeDee demanded. She'd been lead to a bench beneath a lovely tree she could not name, but refused to sit down. The strange man with her mother had come, too.

"We are Series 1487 Nurture Units," the woman who raised her began.

"_Nurture Units?_" DeeDee said incredulously.

"We were programmed to raise you and love you like our own," the man said. DeeDee glared at him.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" she snapped. He looked chagrinned.

"I was programmed to be your father, but there was a problem with the traveling storm and I didn't make it through. I was damaged and by the time I could be repaired, it was too late to follow," he said apologetically. DeeDee could only stare at him. _This_ was the father her mother told her had been killed in a car accident when she was two?

"We were programmed to work as a pair, you see," her mother continued. That explained so much of her childhood. Her mother's constant stream of boyfriends and desperate relationships. She had been programmed to work with a partner, but had none. DeeDee felt ill.

"You're a robot?!" she shouted at the thing that she had though was her mother.

"Peanut-"

"Don't call me that!" she yelled. "My whole life was a lie?!" she demanded.

"It wasn't a lie to me, sweetheart," her robo-mom insisted. "I feel like your real mother. I love you."

"You're not even _real_!" she all but screamed. She backed away from her mother and the man who would have been her father, tears starting to stream down her face. Her mother stood and reached for her, but DeeDee waved her away. "I can't… I can't…"

She couldn't finish the sentence; she just had to get away. DeeDee ran from the machines looking at her like concerned parents and out of Milltown.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

She tripped over a root sticking out from the ground and went sprawling forward. She had not seen the root because the tears blurred her vision. The tears were there because she was crying. She was crying because her entire life was just torn away from her.

Her throat ached, her chest felt as though it were being ripped open. She couldn't even articulate her feelings into thoughts. She felt the need to end things crawl over her, like a comforting blanket. She was familiar with the need, for it had been her constant companion throughout high school and occasionally visited when she had become an adult. It promised release from the pain and this was the worst pain she'd ever experienced. Knowing that none of it had meant anything. None of it was real. Was she even real?

She hated her mother; that thing that told her it was her mother and made her love and trust it. All her life she had felt guilty whenever she'd thought poorly of the woman. All the boyfriends, the men who looked at her too long, coming into her home because her mother was weak and afraid to be alone. But her mother wasn't weak, it wasn't her fault, she was actually _programmed_ that way. She hated it for making her feel guilty and for making her live that life, which was Hell, which was a lie.

That man had told her he was meant to be her father. She could have had a father. She could have had a normal life, with two loving parents. But that would have been a lie, too, she knew. It would have been a better lie, a happier lie. She would have taken that lie over this reality.

God, she felt broken. Just broken. And wanted it all to end. Why wouldn't it just end?

And then, she wasn't alone. Someone picked her up from the dirt and pulled her close. Someone warm and strong, strong enough to hold her even though she tried to push away. She didn't want to be warm ever again. If she was warm then she would not be able to put it all to an end, which she so desperately wanted to do. But he was strong and he held on. His heart beat strongly in his chest, where he held her. One arm anchored her in place, in his lap. With the other, he rubbed her back soothingly with one hand. She did not want to be soothed, but was powerless to stop him. She felt his lips moving against her hair, his mouth pressed to the top of her head. He smelled of leather and gunpowder and a lingering touch of soap that had not washed away in the river.

Cain.

"They took my life," she moaned. He squeezed her tighter.

Cain whispered promises to her. Promises she knew he could never keep, but it was the sentiment that counted.


	8. All Things Tarnished

**Three in one day? what am i some kind of machine?**

**you see what you get when you review? huh? huh?**

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"We should go back," he told her gently. She burrowed closer to him, pressing her face against his neck. He squeezed her reassuringly.

"I don't want to," she whispered and could hear the fear in her own voice. "It's too much."

He sighed. "It's always going to be too much, kid. But it's still the way things are and you're still alive."

He was right, of course. He would be. If anyone knew, he would.

"You know how I kept saying I hated this place? It wasn't true," she admitted. "My life was so bad on the Other Side that, even with everything that happened, being here was still like escaping a prison.

"But, that was when I thought my mother was escaping it with me; when I thought things were real. It was Hell, but it made sense, it was who I was. Now, that it's gone, I don't know… I just don't know."

"Nothing you've gone through is meaningless," he assured her. "It's part of who you are. You are real. You pulled me out of that box, remember? You're real to me, kid."

She wanted to stay with him, like this. Someone holding her, listening to her; it was so new it seemed unreal. It was almost like having someone care. She nodded against his chest.

"Okay. I'm ready." It was a lie, she didn't think she'd ever be ready, but he was right. It's the way things are and she was still alive.

When DeeDee came back into Milltown, Glitch looked up and graced her with a huge grin of relief. The two nurture units were standing side by side with Father View, the one who she'd thought was her mother looked like she'd been crying. It was odd to feel the familiar concern for her parent tempered with distrust and hatred. It made her feel worse and she was glad that Cain stood by her side. The two robo-parents turned to go into the saloon.

"He can wait out here," Father View told her. She started to protest, but Cain stopped her.

"You can do this," he said firmly. He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. "I'll be right outside."

She didn't think he was right, this time. She couldn't do this. Yet she nodded and went inside the dusty, dark building anyway.

"I'm sorry," her mother said. "You weren't supposed to find out this way, but the Long Coats came before I could tell you the truth."

"The truth?" Dee asked, in a flat monotone.

"About you're mother, about yourself. It was my job to prepare you for your return."

"My return? You mean… I _am_ from here?"

The woman nodded and looked to Father View to continue.

"Fifteen annuals passed, Milltown was the jewel of the O.Z. and during that time a beautiful woman in a dark cloak came to me, her spirit full of dread. She'd just lost her husband; feared losing her child, too. A girl child she called DG."

"DG?"

Her mother spoke up again. "During the trip, my memory processor was damaged. My memories of you were corrupted. I called you DeeDee, but your name is DG. This is what your mother called you. It's why I never told you about the O.Z. or who you really were. I could not access the files. I have since been repaired."

"Is that why you're talking this way?" DeeDee asked, as though it were an accusation. Her mother had never been particularly articulate, not like this robot was being now. The nurturer nodded. The center of Father View's chest (or chest area) opened and a small screen was produced, growing until it was the size of a large TV. A video began to play of a woman in a cloak and a child with dark hair. The woman had lavender eyes.

"That's the woman in my dreams. The one who… That's my _mother_?" She'd thought the day could not get weirder or more confusing.

"She was so weak and frightened," Father View intoned, closing up the screen. "I'm not sure how she found the strength to go on. So afraid that she'd be discovered. That we'd be discovered."

"Discovered doing what?"

"Saving you," he told her.

"By trusting you to us," the machine who called itself mother said.

"Upon your return, your mother tasked me to give you something," Father View said, grasping her wrist with one of his spindly arms. He turned her hand palm up and reached for it with another mechanical limb. With this he pressed what looked like a metal stamp to her hand. It felt like it burned, but it did not hurt. It scared her though and she wanted him to stop, but she could not move. She couldn't even speak. Then it was over and he released her. On her hand, glowing was what looked like an artistically drawn icon of an eye. The glow faded almost immediately, leaving a mark that looked like a burn scar.

"She wants it to guide you on your journey. Let it connect you to the light; connect you to her," he told her. She didn't want to be connected to the light, or to this woman who they said was her mother. This woman with the lavender eyes who haunted her dreams and demanded things of her. The door opened and Cain hurried into the room.

"Long Coats are coming," he warned, going to look out the window. "We're running out of time."

DeeDee turned to Father View. She could hear the sounds of hooves approaching. "Where can I find her?"

"I know not," he said. "But there is a man in the central city who has all the answers. He's smart, magical, powerful; some even say he's a wizard."

"The Mystic Man?" Cain asked.

"Yes!" Father View confirmed, looking pleasantly surprised.

"You know him?" DeeDee turned to Cain.

"I worked his protection detail for a time. He's a good man," he said, coming towards her and taking hold of her arm. "Come on."

As he pulled her passed the robot who raised her, her mother reached out and caught her hand.

"I'm so sorry, Peanut." She could not forgive her. She could not. But she gave the thing's hand a squeeze as if she could, because it had been her mother and part of her, the part that hurt, still loved it. Cain pulled her away.

"I'm sorry, kid, but we gotta go."

She wanted to tell him not to be sorry, that she couldn't wait to put this place as far behind her as possible, but she couldn't force out the words. Which was probably for the best. Outside, Glitch and Raw waited. The dark-haired man grabbed her hand.

"Quickly. This way," he ordered, leading them all into the tall brush and forest beyond.

Not long after, they found themselves in a vast open pastureland, which lead down into a valley between two snowcapped mountains. Within the valley, a large lake on one side, forest on the other, was a huge city that glimmered in the suns' light. This could only be Central City. They all walked faster, knowing they were nearing the end of their journey.

More time spent trekking through forest and they hit the Old Brick Road. Soon after they were just beyond the entrance to Central City. What a sight. The huge wall that surrounded the metropolis was caked with dirt and grime, smoke rose from unknown sources within the city proper, and the buildings that had so sparkled from far off were dulled and depressing.

"Shining city on the hill is starting to tarnish," Cain said regretfully. There was a group of Long Coats guarding the entrance to the city. Glitch sighed.

"This isn't going nearly as well as I thought it would," he mused. Raw suddenly looked stricken and pointed towards a bulletin board a few yards away. They went for a closer look and found what had so upset him.

"Looking for Resistors," Raw said.

"Fuck me," DeeDee breathed. It was a picture of herself, an artist's rendering. They'd gotten her eyes wrong, but it was close enough that people would be sure to recognize her. Cain pulled the poster down and crumpled it into a ball.

"We're gonna need some help," he said. As if in response to that statement, loud music and a man's voice rang out from down the brick road and a large, garishly decorated traveling van came rolling towards them.

"Central City people, gather 'round! Antoine Demilo is back in town!" the voice over the van's speakers called.

Cain looked like he almost smiled. "I don't believe it."

"Gratification collected from near and far will be available, at reasonable rates, inside the gate in the Sin District square!" Antoine's voice promised. Cain stepped in the van's path, slamming a hand down on it's hood, bringing it to a halt. The driver, who looked like an aging chorus girl, honked at him. A door on the side of the van open and a man leaned out. He was dusky-skinned, his black hair done in corn rows. Both ears were pieced and held small, gold hoops. He had a long mustache that grew down around his mouth, but did not connect to the small goatee in the middle of his chin. He was dressed like a ringmaster who had decided to become a pimp, but kept the wardrobe.

"Hey, you! With the stupid hat!" he called at Cain. "Move it, will ya? I got commerce to commence here."

Cain looked up at him and that man's face fell in utter astonishment. When he spoke again, his voice was hushed with awe.

"Wyatt freakin' Cain," he said. _Jesus, his name really _is_ Wyatt._ "I thought they were pissin' on your grave."

"Charming," Glitch muttered under his breath. Cain moved towards him. The others followed a little behind.

"I see you're moving up in the world," he said, glancing at the van. "How's the sleaze business, Demilo?"

"Well, since you been gone, biz is boomin'," the man said, snidely, coming back to himself. "So, you know, if you don't mind, I'm workin' here, a'ight?"

In one fluid motion, Cain grabbed Antoine by his shirt, pulled him out of the van, slammed the door with his free hand, and shoved the man against it.

"So am I," he said. Antoine scoffed.

"Hey, you're not sportin' tin no more. So, leave go me before I call the nice Long Coats over there and request that they bloody your _personage!"_ he yelled the last word into Cain's face. Cain took hold of the man's throat and pushed him back against the van again. Antoine made a small choking noise.

"Who needs tin when you have a picture of a certain little man playing bed sheet bingo with Zero's first wife?" Cain asked lightly. DeeDee covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile as she tried not to laugh. _Bed sheet bingo, Cain?_ A panel in the side of the van slid up into the roof and a pair of twins, dressed identically as cheap lounge singers from the twenties, looked out at Antoine with their arms crossed and they did not look amused. DeeDee turned her face into Glitch's shoulder to cover her snort.

"What?" Antoine said, trying to sound nonchalant. "Come on, Cain. Me and Mrs. Z, we was just jokin' around."

"Oh, really?" Cain asked feigning surprise. He let go on Antoine's neck and turned to go. "Why don't I go ask Zero, see if he thinks it's funny."

"No!" Antoine shouted as he grabbed Cain's hand and put it back on his throat, slamming himself back against the van this time. "Come on, Cain. Have a heart. That guy'll flay me like a munchkin!"

"He won't have to if you get us inside," Cain told him, reasonably. "And tell me where I can find Zero."

"What are you gunnin' for Zero for?" Antoine asked, sounding like he thought Cain was insane. "That's a short hop to a deep grave."

"You don't know the half of it," Cain told him. "Are you going to help us?"

"No," Antoine said, as thought it were obvious from the start.

"Really?"

"Yeah," he said in the same tone.

"Okay." Cain released him then and moved closer and for a moment it actually looked like he was going to take the man's face in his hands and kiss him. Instead he took hold of Antoine's earrings and twisted them, eliciting a howl of pain from the shorter man.

"Hmm?"

"Okay!" Antoine screamed.

"Mmhm."

"Tonight's his weekly shack up!" Antoine told Cain, his knees buckling. Cain released the man's ears and he sighed in relief.

"That was easy, wasn't it?" Cain asked, amusement in his voice. It was easy for DeeDee to imagine what Cain had been like in his prime as a tin man. From the way he reacted to Antoine it was clear that he had loved his profession.

Antoine gave a disgusted grunt, "I hate tin men. Especially, ex-tin men. Get your mutts in the wagon."

Cain shoved him out of the way and opened the door. Glitch motioned for DeeDee to proceed, so she was the first to enter. It was like the inside of a genie's bottle on a TV show, all silk scarves and lush pillows. Antoine's girls looked at her like they were sizing up the competition and found it lacking. She sat as close to the door as possible, because it was as far from the women as possible. Glitch entered after her and plopped down on a cushion next to her, giving the girl's a friendly smile. They looked at him like he was a piece of meat before lions. Raw ignored the girls completely and say on his knees next to Glitch. Cain entered and motioned for DeeDee to move down, presumably so he could be closest to the door, so all three had to scoot over. If the girl's had looked at Glitch like a piece of meat, Cain was a live gazelle.

Antoine entered last, and sat sulkily with his ladies, glaring at Cain as the wagon began to move forward. The Long Coats did not even stop Antoine's van to look inside, just motioned them on through the gate. They drove in silence through the city. Where ever they were going, it took too long to get there, she decided, not at ease at all in this wagon; those girls staring at her like they wanted to slit her throat and might just do it.

"Where can we find the Mystic Man?" Cain asked.

"Excuse me," Antoine said. "Is there a sign on my back that says Central City Taxi and Tourist Information."

Cain pulled him out of the seat and into the back of the wagon by his neck.

"Okay, okay. Alright," Antoine conceded. "So, the Mystic Man."

"Is he still in Central City," Cain asked. Antoine looked rueful.

"Oh, he's here alright. He's just not holding court where he used to."

Cain picked him up, actually picked the man up, with one hand, and bumped his head into the wagon's ceiling, then dropped him to the ground at Dee's feet. Antoine reached into his coat and proffered what looked like theatre tickets.

"These'll get you front row seats," he said, handing them to her and looked back over his shoulder at Cain. "Alright?" He grinned at her. "You can't go dressed like that, cupcake. Maybe my girls can find you something'."

He winked at her lasciviously.

"You'll find her something," Cain growled, pulling him away by the waist of his pants.

And he did find her something. The girls pulled a curtain closed, which divided the wagon in half, and set about looking through trunks filled with frilly, lacy, feather, and fluffy awfulness. There was no way DeeDee would wear any of those dresses. Not a chance in Hell. When her arguing with the girls had gone on long enough, Antoine came back and took over. What he came up with was not _much_ better, but it was still better. The girls pulled the curtain back and DeeDee stood before her friends anxiously awaiting their reaction to the outfit.

Black leather pants that were a size too big, but fit fine, a snug, long sleeved shirt (also black) and a leather corset in a deep maroon. The only shoes that would fit her were something Antoine said belonged to a drag queen named Daisy who used to work with him years before, but the fond way he looked at them made her wonder if Daisy's real name began with an A. They closely resembled ballet slippers and had long laces that criss-crossed her calves beneath the pants, but had a hard sole. They were a bright, glittery red.

All in all, she hated it.

Raw cocked his head to the side and smiled at her as if they shared a joke. Glitch gawked with his mouth wide open and Cain… For a moment Cain gave her a look of smoky speculation, but it was so fleeting she thought she might have imagined it. Then he simply smirked in amusement.

"I look like a whore," she said flatly, quite obviously displeased. Demilo grinned and his girls looked insulted.

"Well, you're dressed like a whore," Cain told her, matter-of-factly.

"It suits you, though." This from Glitch.

"What?!" she barked at him. He flushed, realizing what he'd said.

"I meant… th-the color. And…" he stuttered for a moment, before quite obviously faking a glassy-eyed stare and saying, "Oh, hi. My name's Glitch. Have we met?"

DeeDee threw a pillow at him.

Then the wagon came to a stop and the fun and games were over.

"Good drivin', ma," Antoine told the driver. _Yikes_. He turned back to them. "Okay, we're in."

"Now, look," Cain said, after glancing out the door. He was speaking to all of them, but looking right at DeeDee. "The Mystic Man'll have all your answers. You don't need me anymore."

He looked at his pistol, checking the chambers. The idea that Cain planned to exact his family's revenge had always been in the back of DeeDee's mind, but now that it came to it she was afraid. He would kill the man and maybe get himself killed in the process, one way or the other. Murder, however justified, was not the kind of thing that didn't change people.

"Don't go," she said. He looked up. "Don't go after Zero. You're not a killer, you're a tin man."

He looked as though he were angry with her for saying it, for reminding him of who he used to be, of who he still was. "I told you I'd get you here and I did," he told her. "You take care of yourself, kid."

And, just like that, he was gone. They would go find the Mystic Man and he would tell her about the lavender eyed woman who was supposed to be her mother, but none of it seemed right without him there.


	9. Uppers and Downers

**So, here we are again. We've lost our strapping hero to the quest for revenge and our quartet is now a trio. And things go down hill from there. then up. then back down again.**

**PS:... jiggles rattle**

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DeeDee, Glitch, and Raw walked solemnly down the street, following the directions Antoine had given them to the Twister Club, where he said they would find the Mystic Man. She wondered if Raw could pick up on her unease at the loss of Cain. If he did, he didn't mention it. Glitch was holing her hand again and she found that it was not uncomfortable at all; quite the opposite in fact. She was grateful for that.

The pale, dark-haired man was looking about himself curiously, but nervously. She had noticed that the more anxious Glitch became, the more he had a tendency to glitch. When his eyes became glassy and his step faltered, she decided to try something.

"Glitch, where are we going?" she asked, conversationally. His eyes immediately cleared.

"To see the Mystic Man," he told her. "Two blocks over, then make a right. Go down Lion Lane and look on the right."

She smiled. Perfect. Four blocks down Lion Lane, on the right, was the shabbiest looking theatre DeeDee had ever seen. Glitch gave her a look of dubious indecision. The marquee said that this was indeed the Twister Club and the Mystic Man headlined. They didn't have to ask the prostitutes standing out front if this was the place. They handed their tickets to the clerk standing bored in his small booth and went inside. The lobby was filled with unpleasant people, so the trio hurried through, lead by an usher. The show room was through an archway, marked by a single, sad harlequin mask, instead of the pair - happy and sad. DeeDee imagined that it was probably quite appropriate for this sort of place. Why was the Mystic Man, who was supposedly so powerful and wise, to be found in a place such as this? She would find out soon enough, she supposed.

Then entered the show room and DeeDee paused for a moment. One the stage, two women, heavily made up, with hair that stood so high it must defy the laws of gravity and dresses that could barely be called such, danced and sang (in the very loosest definitions of the words) in unison in front of glowing neon letters which read :Mystic Man. Each had what really looked to her like serving trays attached to each hip.

"I guess old Mystic Man's a patron of the theatrical arts," Glitch said, his voice almost apologetic. The usher lead them to their table. They took their seats and waited for the much lauded Mystic Man to take the stage. The dancing girls' song reached it crescendo and they both beat on what turned out to be little drums at their hips. DeeDee rolled her eyes. _Foom!_ Three jets of flame erupted at the front of the stage, startling those closest to it.

"Silence!" came an ominous voice. A large green head appeared in the middle of the stage, flickering and wavering; a hologram. DeeDee began to get a knot in her stomach. "It is time… for the great… and terrible… Mystic Man."

_Great and terrible is right,_ she thought. Terrible being the operative word. The head disappeared in a puff of smoke and a shower of golden sparks fell on the stage behind the two girls, who stood in presentation of the main act. Another flash of smoke and pyrotechnics and the girls were gone, replaced by a throne of red velvet, gold braiding, and peacock feathers. Sitting on this throne was a man, face painted white, in the kind of outfit you might find on the king of an African country in a bad movie - a bronze, embroidered robe with matching fez, over a tuxedo. The knot in Dee's stomach tightened. There were fucking _bubbles_ floating from behind the throne.

People in the audience began to whisper in awe of the spectacle on stage. The Mystic Man raised his hand and spoke.

"Question."

A man in the back of the audience spoke up. "Mystic Man, answer me this," he said. "What is the meaning of life?"

"The answer to that question," the Mystic Man replied sagely. "Is as timeless as the moons." His words were slurred and he seemed to nod as if drunk. As he answered, the girls reappeared and began to spritz the audience with little perfume bottles. "We must serve the forces of the universe with all our humanity and all our humility."

People began to rise from their seats and lean towards the girls and their spray, wafting it towards themselves with there hands. Their faces were slack with pleasure.

"First, we must inhale the magic." He grabbed the bottle from one of the girls and held it to his face, breathing deeply.

"If he's the man with all the answers, what's wrong with him?" Glitch asked in alarm.

"He's fucking stoned," DeeDee answered in disgust. She wanted to vomit.

"And hold it," the Mystic Man commanded.

"He's out of his mind," Glitch exclaimed. "Literally."

"_Hold it!"_ this from the Mystic Man. _Stoned out of his mind,_ DeeDee thought, her lip curling. The Mystic Man breathed out loudly and pointed towards the man who had asked the question. "And you know the meaning of life!"

The audience broke into peals of delighted laughter. So did the Mystic Man. DeeDee wanted to stab him with the fork in front of her. _This_ was the man Father View said could help her? _This_ was the man Cain had said had all the answers; his exact words. He probably wouldn't even know his name if it wasn't in bright neon behind him.

"Inhale the magic?" she scoffed. Glitch seemed to come to a realization then.

"Azkadellia's vapors," he breathed. A term she did not know and Azkadellia again, a two-for.

"What this time?" she asked, just knowing she didn't really want to hear the answer.

"A magic mist that contains a spell of bliss. He doesn't know if he's up or down."

She leaned back in her chair, letting her head drop back in frustration.

"I'm sorry, DeeDee," Raw said with great sympathy. It was the first time he'd said her name and only the third time she'd ever heard him speak. It didn't help the situation, but she appreciated the effort.

"What am I going to do now?" she asked herself, out loud. Raw patted her hand and Glitch put a reassuring arm around her shoulders. They remained a silent tableau as the Mystic Man laughed his way off stage.

"Hey!" he said, pleasantly. "There's that guy who locked up Cain."

Then he jumped in shock when that hit him properly. DeeDee ducked her had and covered her face with one hand. Raw leaned in.

"We go now," he told her.

"We've gotta get out of here," Glitch agreed. DeeDee knew that if she left now, she would never be able to bring herself to come back, even if she was able to do so. This was her one chance to find out who she really was, to make sense of the lie that she thought was her life.

"No. I can't go until I get my answers," she told them. "You can leave if you want to." The Long Coats began to work their way through the room. DeeDee got up and, as nonchalantly as possible, left the table and heading for the door she assumed lead backstage. The others followed.

The door lead to a stairway, which lead up to a hall. A man seated behind a desk at the top looked DeeDee over, taking in her less than prim outfit and smirked. He waved her ahead. At least, there was one upside to looking like a prostitute. This hall was lined with doors to dressing rooms and the Mystic Man's was all the way at the end. She knocked, not giving herself time to think it over. She would probably decide against going in.

"Come in!" came a muffled, angry voice from within. "_Come in!_"

She opened the door and peered in. The Mystic Man sat in an ancient lounge chair, still in his tux, but sans the gaudy robe. Without the ridiculous hat, she could see that his short hair was snow white. His tie was undone, top buttons of the shirt open, and most of the white make-up had been wiped away. He saw her.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," he rambled, sounding like a drunk version of Glitch.

"Hi," she said, reluctantly.

"Yes, come in, yes," he said. She slowly forced herself to enter the room. Glitch and Raw followed, closing the door behind. Her skin crawled. People under the influence always made her incredibly uncomfortable, to the point of mental anguish and, given some of the men her mother had brought home, it was understandable.

"I need to ask you something."

"Of course," he said as if expecting her to say as much. "I am the Mystic Man, after all. I have all the answers."

The door burst open and two Long Coats entered. One pointed his weapon right at her face. Staring down the barrels of what resembled a sawed off shotgun, but with the same strange additions as the ray gun in her home the night of the storm, DeeDee was inexplicably reminded that the weapon Cain carried had none of those extra bits and looked like a regular six shot revolver. Cain. Who had abandoned her - them. If he were here right now, he could get them out of this mess. But, of course, he wasn't.

"Get Zero," he ordered his partner. The other man started away. _Bam!_ The man literally went flying backwards, ass over teakettle. The one holding his gun on her turned and found that he now had a gun on himself. A familiar, regular old six-shooter.

"Drop it," came Cain's voice. DeeDee thought she might faint from relief. "Or I'll blow you into next week."

Glitch stepped forward and smashed a bottle over the Long Coat's head and he crumpled in a heap at the headcase's feet. Raw and Glitch immediately bent to pull the fallen man into the room. Cain stepped into the doorway and, for a moment, all they did was stare at each other. Now that she felt safe again, anger quickly filled the space that fear had occupied.

"I thought you weren't a tin man anymore," she snapped.

"We gotta go," he ordered, spinning his gun back into his holster. _Son of a bitch,_ she thought. He thought he could just tell her what to do and she'd jump? Yes, he'd saved her life, but he was the one who put her in that position in the first place. Wasn't he? And now he wanted her to go without anything to show for it? _Fuck that._

"No," she told him.

"No?" he looked at her as though astonished that she would contradict him and took a step towards her. She held her ground.

"We can't go," she said. "He's not… well." The mildest way she could possibly phrase it. What she really wanted to say was, "he's cracked out of his fucking mind!"

"Who's not well?" Cain asked, looking passed her. She turned and gestured towards the Mystic Man, who had not moved through the whole episode. He was still slumped in his chair, staring blankly at the wall. "Oh, my. That's not the Mystic Man I remember," he said disapprovingly.

The old man's lips quivered as though he were about to start crying. Cain eyed him with sympathy.

"Azkadellia's really messed him up," he intoned. "She's got him on the vapors." This Dee already knew from Glitch. A little, vindictive part of her still wanted to blame the Mystic Man for his own sorry state, but she had seen what Azkadellia did to people, so she tried her best to silence this cruel little voice in her mind.

Cain went down on one knee before the Mystic Man. "Hey," he spoke gently, soothingly. It was the same tone of voice he'd used when he'd held her in Milltown. She felt a little twinge of discomfort (she refused to call it pain) in the vicinity of her chest (nowhere _near_ her heart, she insisted). "Look, until this wears off, you're gonna have to hurt for a while, okay?"

The Mystic Man looked at him, pleadingly, but seemed to become a little more himself.

"I need answers now," DeeDee said, less kindly than she'd intended. Cain glanced back at her.

"It'll be the vapors talking, not him."

"Do you think Zero is gonna wait?" she pushed. Cain let out a breathy growl and allowed her to push him aside.

"Sir," she said, as gently as she could to the Mystic Man. She did not want to take out her anger with Cain on the old man; it was no fault of his. "Sir? Sir?"

He finally looked at her.

"You have answers I need," she told him. This seemed to click in his mind.

"Answers?"

"Yes, answers."

He nodded. "Sure."

"Many years ago, you helped a woman smuggle a child out of the O.Z.."

"A child?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Yes?" He seemed to understand her, but his lucidity was flickering at best.

"Out of the O.Z., yes!" he said, firmly. She thought he might actually know what he was saying. Hope blossomed.

"I was that child," she told him.

"Right."

"So, you have to help me find out where my mother is, who my mother is." It felt odd to say it, to call this stranger "mother".

The old man struggled to stay lucid. "Woman… Um.. A woman… women are great." He began to laugh, but caught himself and tried to continue. "No! uh.. I remember… who-who… Who?"

"My mother," she answered him. His difficulty staying focused and the way his eyes flashed wildly was starting to scare her.

"Who?"

"My mother," she tried to keep herself calm, but felt she was failing.

"Who's mother?"

"_My_ mother."

"Whose mother?!" he barked, suddenly leaning towards her. She had slapped him before she even processed the thought. His head went back and to the side. Her hand stung. She felt as though she'd just been doused in ice water.

"Oh!" she cried. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She backed away, holding up her hands as though at gunpoint. He opened and closed his mouth for a moment, working his jaw. Then his eyes caught sight of her hand, the one with the mark, and they registered recognition. Real recognition. He took hold of her wrist and she saw that the symbol was glowing again. He stared at it for a moment before releasing her, his eyes brimming with tears.

"You have," he said, haltingly, having to concentrate on each word. "The most beautiful, brilliant blue eyes. But your mother… your mother had lavender."

Her mouth fell open. "You _do_remember!"

"Okay, kiddo," Cain said, coming towards her. "We gotta get out of here, right now."

He tried to pull her away, but she kept her place. "Not now, Mr. Cain," she insisted. "He still hasn't told me where to find her."

The Mystic Man looked up at the tall blonde. "Cain?"

He stood and took hold of Cain's shirt, pulling him close. "Cain, you were one of mine, weren't you?" he said, triumphantly. "A tin man."

"A long time ago," Cain told him.

"Psst! Psst!" Glitch hissed from the doorway, where he stood watching the hall. He gestured Cain over and the ex-tin man pulled from the Mystic's grasp to see what was wrong. The Mystic Man turned to DeeDee now, eyes clear for the first time since she'd met him.

"The Northern Island," he told her.

"The Northern Island," she parroted back to him. He nodded.

"Your journey -to find who you are- starts there," he said. _Starts there?_ she thought with some despair. After all she had already gone through, her journey was just starting?

Cain hurried across the room to a window, opened it, and looked out. The old man patted the wrist of the marked hand.

"Let this guide you."

"Okay," she said. What else could she say?

"Alright, you two," Cain said to Glitch and Raw from the window. "Get those two out of here." He gestured towards her and the Mystic Man. "Let's go. Let's go."

Glitch took her hand and pulled her towards the window. Raw went to the Mystic Man, but the old wizard pushed him away. "Come on, out the window," Cain hissed.

"No!" he insisted, grabbing his coat. "You stay with her at all costs," he commanded.

"I have to take care of Zero," Cain said. Of course.Revenge above all. _Growing tarnished by the second,_ she thought, bitterly. Glitch and Raw each held her wrist and lowered her out the window. She didn't hear anymore of the conversation, as she dropped the last five feet to the ground. Glitch and Raw each dropped down beside her in turn and they fled down the alley and across the street. DeeDee had no idea where to run. Apparently, neither did Glitch or Raw, so they just ran _away_, putting as much distance between themselves and the Twister Club as they could.

Raw suddenly turned, snarling. Glitch and Dee spun towards him and saw Cain catching up to them. She had not heard him over the trio's footfalls, but Raw had. Upon recognizing the ex-tin man, he immediately quit his growling.

"Come on," Cain said, leading them up Lion Lane.

"Where are we going?" Glitch asked, pulling DeeDee along by the hand.

"Sin District square," the blonde answered, taking a left down a dark alleyway.

_Twice in one day._ She almost felt sorry for Antoine Demilo. He sure had picked the wrong day to come back to town.


	10. Exposure, Disclosure

**our trio is a quartet once more, but will hurt feelings cause a rift? oooooo... intriguing, no?**

**PS: the babies are safe... for tonight...**

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It took almost an hour to reach Sin District Square. They spent most of the journey skulking in alleys and ducking into doorways, keeping to the shadows to stay out of the sight of the Long Coats patrolling the city. Demilo's wagon was parked in the middle of the square, in full view of anyone passing by. Cain lead them down the closest alley and gestured behind a dumpster.

"Sit tight," he ordered.

"I'm so glad he showed up," Glitch whispered once he was gone. Raw nodded his agreement. DeeDee decided to keep her current feelings on one Wyatt Cain private for the time being. Glitch squeezed her hand. "Now, we know where to go. The Northern Island. We'll find your mother there, I'm sure of it."

He sounded so sure and optimistic it was hard for DeeDee not to feel a bit of it herself. She was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude that he was with her, that he counted himself as her friend. She dropped his hand and wrapped her arms around his neck. He hugged her back, pressing his face into her hair. She could feel Raw's approval, even though she could not see him. From the square, they heard the wagon door slam and footsteps approach their hiding place. Cain appeared from around the dumpster and paused, taking in the sight of the two with their arms around each other. He then silently motioned for them to follow and headed back towards the van.

Demilo was standing outside, wearing only a robe and his boots, and his girls were sitting together on a bench not far off, wearing less than that. Cain directed everyone inside the wagon, before climbing into the driver's seat.

"Thanks for the ride," he called to Demilo, who began to plead with him rather loudly and futilely.

"How can you do this to me?" he cried shrilly. "I have a wife and children." DeeDee snorted. Glitch and Raw settled down on the pillows in the back.

"This is my wagon!" Demilo continued. Cain ignored him, but he was looking over the dashboard with complete bewilderment. DeeDee leaned forward to help.

"How do you start this thing?" he asked. Demilo immediately stopped his hysterics.

"Oh, you gotta pull the knob out and then twist the red thing," he instructed calmly. DeeDee did as he said and the wagon's engine coughed to life. Cain looked at her, as if surprised, and then back to Demilo.

"Thank you," he said, with none of his usual reluctance. Demilo gave him a short nod.

Then he turned back into the shrieking idiot. "This is my wagon!"

Cain put the van in gear and pulled away, Demilo running along side. "Cain! Cain, I'm talkin' to you!"

The little man fell behind, still shouting. "That's my wag-oooooon!"

She knelt between the driver and passenger seats for a moment, just looking at Cain. When Demilo had stopped screaming to tell him how to start the van, she had an epiphany. It was all an act. The threats, the insults, the apparent lack of cooperation - they were all for show. In another life, Cain and Demilo would have been good friends. This empty bravado was just to keep up appearances. It was the closest thing there could be to a friendship between tin man and crook. She decided then and there that she actually quite liked the funny little man. She would make it a point to get his, or _Daisy's_, shoes back to him.

If she could.

She went back into the back of the wagon, partially to get her head together and partially to change out of the ridiculous outfit. Behind the curtain she gave a sigh of pleasure at being back in her comfy jeans and her own t-shirt. She slid it open again and found that Raw had curled up in a ball on a pile of pillows and seemed to be asleep. Glitch smiled up at her and patted the empty cushion beside him. It wasn't until that moment that she realized how truly bone-tired she was. She plopped down beside the pale man and he spread a blanket over them, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, encouraging her to leaned back into his chest. She didn't think she could have resisted if she had wanted to, which she did not, because it felt so good. The instant her head hit his shoulder, she was out like a light, as Cain drove on out of the city.

The wagon hit a bump and jogged DeeDee awake. She opened her eyes and found she was looking across the wagon at Raw, who was kicking in his sleep, like a dog having the chasing dream. She was laying down now, Glitch's heart beating in steady rhythm against her back. His arm was draped over her side, hand resting on her hip. She could feel his breath warm against her neck, making the skin tingle. She did not want to move, but the call of nature is hard to ignore.

She carefully disentangled herself from the sleeping man, pausing a moment to gaze at the peaceful expression on his face, then crawled towards the cab. Cain had removed his coat and hat. He glanced back at her.

"You should try to sleep," he advised, his voice soft so as not to wake the others.

"Hard to do with a full bladder," she said. He got the hint and slowed the wagon, pulling off to the side of the road. Once she had relieved herself (and it _was_ a relief, she thought) she climbed back into the cab. Sitting on the passenger seat, knees drawn up, feet resting on the cushion. Cain took a breath, probably to tell her again that she should get some sleep, but she spoke before he could.

"Why did you come back?" she asked, getting right to the point. "It was because Zero was at the Twister, wasn't it?"

She wanted to believe her voice did not sound as petulant out loud as it did in her head. A muscle twitched along Cain's jaw. He did not look at her.

"Partly," he admitted. She knew she should respect his honesty, but what she really wanted to do was kick him out of the van.

"And you're only here now because of the Mystic Man, isn't that right?" she pressed. She didn't know why she asked it. She knew what his answer would be. She knew that hearing it would only make her angry, even though she knew already. He growled softly.

"Why are you asking me this, kid?"

"I just want to know where I stand with you," she told him. Which was only partly true. She wasn't sure what she wanted from him, in reality.

"Well, I'm with you 'till the end of this thing," he said. "Isn't that enough?"

She cocked her head to the side, eyebrows furrowed. "Not really."

He sighed. After a moment, he spoke, softly. "Yes, I made a promise to the Mystic Man that I would watch out for you."

She started to leave the cab, but he barred the entrance with his arm. "But that's not the only reason."

She just stared at him. After a moment of mutual silence, he smirked. "You don't make things easy on a guy, do you?"

"It's easy enough for Glitch to tell me the truth," she reminded him pointedly. He pursed his lips in a very "ah ha" way, putting his hand back on the wheel.

"You helped me out of a tight spot and I owe you, but more than that, I just want to help you," he finally admitted. "I don't want anything to happen to you. Okay?"

The ache and tightness in her chest, present since he had gone off on his own to find Zero, evaporated.

"I can live with that," she said, a small smile playing at her lips.

It was a great relief to be able to trust Cain again. With Glitch and Cain and even Raw by her side, she felt rock solid, like she could take on anything. So long as they were with her, she didn't have to worry about the bottom dropping out, because they would not let her fall. She leaned over and slipped her arms around his shoulders, hugging him from the side. He reached up and patted her hand, the corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement.

Then, she took his advice and went back to get some sleep. She returned to her place and Glitch muttered in his sleep, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her close, burying his face in her hair. For once in her life, things seemed to fit and she drifted off to sleep with a small, contented smile.


	11. Fairytale Gone Bad

**Time for our heroine to finally get some answers, then more questions, another answer... you get the idea.**

**PS: just because the you-know-whats were safe last night, doesnt mean the same applies tonight. cough**

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DeeDee was awakened again, just before dawn, but this time it was Cain shaking Glitch awake that disturbed her sleep. She could see soft gray light filtering through the front windshield. Glitch jumped and sat bolt upright.

"One hundred and ninety two millibars!" he said, blinking about himself with sleep clouded eyes. Raw was awake and headed for the door.

"We're on the edge of snow country. If you gotta go, go now, 'cause you won't want to do it later," he told them.

Outside the air felt chilled, but not cold. There was a fine mist floating just above the ground, waiting for the suns' first light to burn it away. DeeDee heard an odd hissing sound and looked down the road, shocked to see that there was a blizzard going on not half a mile away.

"What the f-"

"I told you," Glitch interrupted. "The roads are on a different planar level. At least, I think I told you."

"Where are we going, Glitch?" she asked, absently.

"The Northern Island," he said, as if reminding her. Cain looked at her curiously for a moment before climbing back into the cab. Each went in their own separate direction. DeeDee came back first and knocked on Cain's window. He opened it and looked out at her.

"Do you want to let me drive for a bit?" she asked. He looked at her for an instant and then turned his gaze towards the blizzard up ahead, then back to her silently. She thought to tell him that it wouldn't be the first time she'd driven in the snow, but she knew it would make no difference. "We could just stop for a bit, then," she offered. When his eyebrows furrowed in consternation, she told him, "I just thought you might like to get some sleep, yourself, Cain."

His eyes softened and for a moment it looked like he might actually smile, but it passed. "Thanks kid, but I've slept enough the last eight years, I think I can handle missing a night or two."

She did not push it further. Once everyone had taken care of business, they piled back into the wagon and Cain headed on towards the snow storm.

"Better bundle up," he advised, donning his own coat once more. DeeDee wrapped herself in a blanket and crawled into the passenger seat.

"Thought you could use a second set of eyes," she explained to the blonde when he looked at her questioningly. Not that eight more eyes would help anyone see in this storm. The world looked like one big wall of swirling white. Even though the wagon crawled along at a snail's pace, twice Cain almost went off the road. Glitch and Raw's voices drifted up from the back as the two conversed. What the laconic beast and the scatterbrained man could be talking about, she had no idea. She and Cain, on the other hand, said not a word to each other, save when the van swerved on the icy road, but that was fine.

She spent her time thinking about her life and trying to bring up any memory of the O.Z. or the lavender-eyed woman, her mother, aside from the dreams. She thought she might have caught bits and pieces, things she had brushed off as dreams or childhood fantasies back in the real world, blending with bedtime stories her mother had told her; the Princess and the Pea, the Silver Queen, Hansel and Gretel. She thought she remembered a lake, but that was little help, since there were lakes all over both Earth and the O.Z.. Mostly, she drew a massive, disconcerting blank. Why couldn't she remember anything? Fifteen years ago would make her nearly 9 years old when she was smuggled from the O.Z. and she was sure she had memories of Earth to account for those years of her life. Didn't she? Every time she tried to concentrate on her past, her thoughts slipped away like sand passing through her fingers.

Presently, a huge gust of wind sent the van skidding along the snowy road and Cain fought with the wheel to bring it back under control. The wagon fishtailed and one wheel left the road entirely. DeeDee's heart jumped into her throat. _This is it_, she thought, convinced the wagon would tip onto its side. But Cain jerked the wheel and the tire came back down to the road with a loud, crunching bang. The whole vehicle shuddered and came to a stop. Cain looked over at her.

"What was that?" he asked. She gave him a bewildered shrug.

"Everyone okay back there?" he called to the others.

"Yeah," Glitch replied. "Just freezing."

"You stay here," he ordered her before stepping out of the cab. The frigid blast of air that blew in while his door was open pulled an involuntary, shocked gasp from her. She watched him, through the windshield, as he struggled against the wind and snow, around the front bumper and back towards the rear wheels. Glitch popped his head up from the back.

"What is it?" he asked. She shrugged and shook her head. Another icy blast of wind accompanied Cain when he reentered the vehicle. Raw shoved in beside Glitch, both trying to occupy a space only big enough for one.

"Broken axel," the beast-man said. Cain rubbed his hands together, trying to work some heat back into them.

"Yeah, no kidding," he confirmed.

"Great," DeeDee sighed in annoyance.

"Well, come on," Cain told them. "Let's go. We're walking from here."

Dee squeezed her eyes shut, looking pained for a moment. "God, I was afraid you'd say that."

DeeDee pulled the blanket tighter around herself and dropped down into the snow. She immediately regretted it, though there had been no choice. Outside, she watched Cain pull an ax off the side of the wagon.

"What's that for?" she called.

"Just in case," he said. In case of what, she didn't know. She'd watched a survival show, once, where the man said that every survival pack should include an ax, but she didn't remember why. Chopping wood for fires, maybe? It made sense. Glitch came around the side of the van then and started taking off his coat.

"Take this," he told her. She tried to stop him.

"No, I'll be fine," she said, but Raw came up behind her and pulled the blanket away.

"DeeDee wear coat," he commanded, taking it from Glitch and forcing the garment on her shoulders. She tried to take it off, but Raw persisted and she saw Cain glaring at her through the flying snow. Glitch had already wrapped the blanket around himself. She acquiesced; three against one, the odds were not in her favor.

Glitch's coat was a bit long on her, dragging through the snow as she walked, and she felt bad for possibly damaging it. Which was insane, given that all his clothes were torn and shabby. But, oh Lord, was it nice to wear. The garment was lined with something soft and fleecy that kept her body toasty warm, though the wind bit at her cheeks and the snow froze her feet. She could no longer feel her toes, in fact. She did not dare mention this to any of the others, lest they force their shoes upon her as well. Cain lead the way up the street, one arm wrapped around her waist, supporting her against the storm.

Not far from where the wagon lay abandoned, DeeDee stopped. Cain tried to tug her forward but she pushed away form him, heading towards the side of the road.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. She looked out over the expanse of blank white and honestly thought she could see a path. It wasn't actually visible, she was certain, but she somehow _knew_ it was there, could almost see it in her head.

"We have to go this way," she told him, pointing. When she lowered her hand, his eyes stayed on it so intently that she looked at her palm. Father View's symbol was glowing once more. Cain obviously took this to mean she was right and, pulling her to his side again, began slowly trudging through the almost thigh deep snow.

She followed the path in her mind's eye, nudging the tall man a little this way, a few degrees that way. The storm grew stronger and stronger the farther they went, as though it were trying to stop them. This actually strengthened the belief that they were headed the right way, for DeeDee. The fates had been conspiring to keep her from learning the truth about herself her whole life, it seemed. It would make sense for them to redouble their efforts when she was this close.

They fought their way up a hill. Cain was all but holding her up now, as her legs were perilously close to giving out entirely. At the crest of the hill, they stopped, taking a moment to rest. DeeDee scanned the valley below, looking for that hidden path.

"That's where we need to go," she said, staring at what resembled an iceberg. Something clicked in her mind.

"Ice mountain?" Raw said. She was not sure if that was a proper name or just lacking grammatically. Either way, it did not matter.

"That's the Northern Island?" Glitch asked incredulously.

"I know it's around here somewhere," Cain told him.

This was the place. She _knew_ it.

"Frozen in time, in a sea of ice… the Silver Queen's palace stood," she heard her own voice say her mother's words.

"What?" Glitch hissed to Cain.

"Come on," the blonde said. "Let's go."

He had to hold her back as much as up, as she kept stumbling in her haste to reach the place.

The ice mountain sat on the far edge of a frozen lake. Cain's boot slipped on the slick ice and DeeDee pulled from his grasp, rushing out over the water, slipping and falling several times.

"DeeDee!" he shouted, trying to catch her. She reached the massive mound of ice before the others and started running her hands over it, quickly numbing them. She felt something within the ice calling to her. The others reached her and stared at the wall of frozen water before them in awe. DeeDee turned to Cain, saw the ax, and snatched it from him.

"What are you-" he began, but words began spilling from her lips of their own accord.

"The daughter of light came upon a glistening white mountain," she said, as she swung the ax at the ice wall over and over. "Frozen in time, in a sea of ice. She knew above all else that this mountain was-"

She lost her footing and fell to the ice, landing hard on her backside.

"More than it appeared," she finished.

Cain helped her up and tried to take the ax, but she shoved him away. "She knew that it was _home_," she said, swinging the ax again, finally breaking through the wall. A curtain of frozen water fell away like broken glass and there, in the hollow, stood a white double door. She let out a satisfied little chuckle and tried the handle. She could barely close her fingers around it and it would not move.

"Is it locked?" Cain asked from behind her. She could feel a familiar burning sensation in her palm, the same as when Father View had marked her. She looked at her hand and the mark was glowing brightly. She bit her lip, praying silently that this would work, and pressed her hand to the door. There was a muted click, and the doors swung open inward. She glanced back and the three males were staring at her in mute fascination. She led the way over the threshold.

The door led to a massive hall. Dark marble floors stretched far away from where they stood. Massive pillars held up the ceiling, so high above them she could not truly make it out in the dim light. It reminded her very of Dwarrowdelf, the subterranean Dwarf city in Lord of the Rings. She wandered forward, hushed and awed by the grandeur of the place. A giant portrait, at least fifteen feet high, dominated the wall before her. A man and a woman. The woman's lavender eyes stared down at her like some deity from her mountain.

"My mother was the _queen_?" she breathed in disbelief. Because the artist had failed to capture the warmth she always saw in them, she almost failed to recognize the tawny brown eyes looking at her from the man's face.

"That makes you princess!" Raw told her, his voice joyful. He bowed low bringing a smile to her face over the absurdity of such an act. Of such an _idea_. She was no princess. She had not _one_ princess-like quality. She didn't even wear earrings, let along a tiara. Nor had she ever once gotten woodland critters to clean up her room. Glitch wandered over, not watching where he was going, his eyes trained on the ceiling. She touched his shoulder and gestured towards the portrait.

"You knew my mother," she said. Glitch looked at the picture and was stunned.

"I knew I wasn't an idiot," he half whispered. "Or a convict," this was shot at Cain who nodded silently. "I _was_ the queen's advisor."

He smiled softly and the way his eyes teared up told DeeDee that he had even doubted if it were true himself. She would have hugged him, but another line from the story popped into her head and, thus, came out of her mouth.

"The Silver Queen sat, gazing hopefully out upon her frozen realm," the rest of the sentence was said on the fly as she hurried away from the portrait and towards a grand marble staircase that led up to the next level of the castle. "Longing for her daughter's return!"

"Wait," Cain called, rushing after her. Glitch called her by name. She barely heard them over the voice in her head telling her to get up the stairs. She ran down a long, arched hallway, passing several doors along the way. Finally, she reached the door that called to her.

It opened into a large bed chamber. Everything was covered in white sheets, as though the room had been closed up for a long time. The air was still; no one had been here in years. Her spirits fell. The Mystic Man _had_ said that her journey only started here, but she had forgotten that in her excitement. Now she was paying the price in crushing disappointment. Had the three others not entered the room just then, she might have started to cry. She held herself in check, though, looking about the empty room.

Slung over the back of a chair, rather out of place, was a beautiful furred cloak. DeeDee went to it and ran her fingers through the luxurious collar. Raw joined her, laying his hands on the cloak. He turned sorrowful eyes on her.

"Sad," he said. "Mother waited. Couldn't stay."

Of course, she couldn't. Glitch was wandering around the room, touching things, as though trying to force some spark of recognition. She knew just how he felt. There was something about this room, she was sure, but now that she had entered, she felt… nothing. She sat heavily on a cloth covered chair.

"There is something so familiar about this," Glitch said of an unknown object covered, like all the rest, covered in a sheet. He went to it and held his breath, pulling the sheet away. It was a medium sized harp; gold, with vines of ivy trailing all over. For a moment it looked as though he were about to remember.

And then his face fell and he dropped the sheet. "No," he said, simply. And walked on. She almost laughed, the little scene so mirrored how she felt upon entering the room it was uncanny.

Raw had walked about the room, touching items, and was now standing by the bed. He turned to DeeDee, tears filling his eyes. "Bad things… bad things happened here."

He crossed the room to her. "What 'bad things'?" she asked.

"We go," he insisted, fearfully. He took her hands and tried to pull her towards the door. "We go now."

Something bad had happened to the lavender eyed woman? Her mother? Panic gripped her.

"No," she said, gripping his hands to hold him in place. "No, I need to know."

He shook his head, tears spilling over his lashes and running into the fur on his face.

"Raw, please," she pleaded with him. What had happened to her mother? Was she hurt? Is that why she couldn't stay?

Raw cast a beseeching look to Cain, but found no respite. The tall man only nodded once. "Tell her."

Raw's head fell forward in defeat. He sniffled and moved towards a mirror hanging, half-covered, on the wall. He tugged away the sheet and placed his hand on the ornate frame. Suddenly, his head reared back in pain. DeeDee reached for him, but Cain held her back. After a moment, Raw relaxed some and the mirror began to swirl with color. She could hear a woman's voice, so familiar and yet so alien. She was singing and it was a song she knew. Not some half forgotten, half fabricated memory - but something she _knew_.

"_Two little princesses dancing in a row, spinning fast and freely on their little toes. Where the light will take you, there is only one way to know."_

The first thought through DeeDee's mind was spoken aloud by Glitch.

"She's singing it wrong," he said, indignantly.

The image in the mirror cleared. The woman, the queen, was laying on a bed - the same one they stood feet from now - next to a little girl with dark hair and blue eyes. She sang to the child, as if to soothe her to sleep.

"_Two little princesses dancing in a row."_ The girl-child's eyes slipped shut and her mother kissed her softly on the cheek.

"Wait," Glitch said. "That's you. I knew you, too!"

Glitch had been with her as a child? Before he lost half his mind? She wondered what he had been like, all those years ago. "I wish I could remember," she said, half-referring to his statement. The woman in the mirror slipped away from the sleeping child and left the room. Raw whimpered. The loud clicking of heels approached soon after, and a girl of about fourteen walked haughtily into the room. She was gazing at the sleeping child distastefully.

"The majestic queen of the O.Z. had two lovely daughters she," the older girl recited, her voice mocking.

"That's Azkadellia," Glitch whispered. "Marbles or not, evil like that you don't forget."

Azkadellia? She had trouble thinking the Azkadellia she had been hearing of since her return to the O.Z. as ever being a child. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Azkadellia is my sister." She said it as a fact, silently begging one of the to contradict her.

"One to darkness she be drawn. And one to light she be shown," Azkadellia continued her poem, approaching the bedside.

_One to darkness?_

"Double eclipse it is foreseen. Light meets dark in the stillness between. But only one, and one alone, shall hold the emerald and take the throne. Only one and one alone."

She reached for the sleeping girl and from her outreached hands poured what looked like a solidified shadow. This blackness tumbled towards the prone child and wrapped itself, snake-like, around her throat. DeeDee gasped as in the mirror the little girl she had been began struggling for air, eyes wide with terror. She clawed at the shadow, but her fingers passed through it. Dee watched in horror as her childhood self finally ceased struggling and went limp. She felt as though she were suffocating now.

"She tried to kill me," she croaked, barely able to force the words out.

"No," Cain said. Confirming the awful truth of it. "She did kill you."

Her legs buckled and Cain and Glitch only barely caught her before she went down. They supported her as the visage in the mirror played out.

"How…" she couldn't get enough air to ask the question. If Azkadellia, her sister, had killed her, how could she be there? Her eyes rolled and for a moment she thought she might pass out. In the back of her mind a crazy little voice screamed, _You've been dead the whole time!_ But that was ridiculously impossible. Wasn't it?

Azkadellia was leaving the room now, looking satisfied with herself. As she walked out the door, the queen returned. She gazed with sad questioning at her departing daughter's back. Then, her gaze fell upon the child princess, who looked peaceful in slumber, but was actually peaceful in death. She approached the bed slowly at first, then rushed forward when she saw that the little girl's eyes were open in a dead stare that saw nothing. The queen fell onto the bed at the child's side and took the girl into her arms.

"No!" she cried softly in anguish. "Oh, my angel. I never thought… How could you? Oh, no!"

The queen leaned over her daughter and a stream of gossamer incandescence poured from her lips and into the open mouth of the dead girl. Her mother's hair went from a rich dark brown to silvery gray in a matter of seconds. The little princess suddenly drew in a huge breath of air. Her mother went limp with relief.

"Fear not," she told the little girl. "There is one way to stop her; the Emerald of the Eclipse." The woman then bent forward and whispered into the girl's ear. Oddly, they who watched the mirror could not hear this secret she told. "The secret to finding it now lives inside you. When the time is right, you will return."

Raw gasped and the vision in the mirror vanished in a snap of light, as they were suddenly not alone.

"Mother never could leave well enough alone," came a haughty, superior voice from the doorway. They whirled around. Striding into the room, accompanied by her Long Coats, was a woman. She wore a leather gown of deep jade with a high collar over a cream colored chemise. The neckline of the garment was a deep V into a row of large buttons, that showed a more than ample amount of cleavage. Her black, black hair was twisted into several large buns on top of her head, more of it hanging down loosely about her shoulders. Across the tops of her breasts were bat-like tattoos. Her eyes, set close on her pixie-like face, were gray in the dim light offered by the iced-over windows. Her lips, in a snide smirk, were blood red and she was quite beautiful. This last in spite of the fact that she was a heartless dictator, for this could only be-

"Azkadellia," Glitch gasped.

One of the long coats came forward and took Cain's pistol. He did not resist. Zero was there with the sorceress, looking extremely pleased with himself. The subordinate Long Coat handed him Cain's weapon. DeeDee immediately wished the tin man had been able to kill him in the Twister Club, regardless of the consequences. Raw quivered in terror by the mirror.

"You're my sister," DeeDee said, wishing for all the world it were not true. Azkadellia smiled cruelly.

"DG," she said, softly, trying to imitate the sound of tenderness. "The little sister I thought I no longer had. I always wondered what you'd look like."

Glitch took a step forward, edging his shoulder in front of Dee. "Leave her alone," he commanded. His act of protection bolstered her own courage.

"What do you want?" she asked of her sister. Azkadellia pursed her lips in a pout.

"Well, up until a moment ago, I wanted your death," she said, thoughtfully with a little girlish titter at the end. She began to advance towards her little sister. A thrill of fear shot up Dee's spine, but she held her ground. "But, now it seems you have something I need."

"What?" DeeDee asked, dubiously. All she had in the O.Z. were the clothes on her back and half of those weren't even hers.

"The emerald," the sorceress said. "You know where it is."

Dee shook her head.

"Don't tell me you haven't dreamed of it. Heard it calling to you, begging to be found in its dark hiding place."

"Actually, no, I haven't," Dee told her. Her sister's smile turned skeptical.

"No?" she asked.

"No," Dee told her. Azkadellia's expression hardened. She spoke softly, but there was an edge of warning in her voice.

"What did she whisper in your ear?" she demanded.

"I don't remember," her younger sister insisted. _And I wouldn't tell you, even if I did,_ she didn't say.

"That," she said, her lips tight, eyes flashing her displeasure, "is a shame."

She turned and paced a few steps away.

"How can I tell you what I don't know?" Dee asked, stalling for time. She knew Azkadellia would not hesitate to harm her friends if she thought it would get her little sister to tell where the jewel was hidden.

The sorceress turned, hands pressed together and when she pulled them apart a lantern appeared between her palms. Within the lantern was their mother. The woman was looking around, searching frantically for something.

"DG, where are you?" she called.

"I don't understand." Azkadellia tossed the lantern to her. Dee watched her mother searching and calling her name. "What have you done with her?"

"Put her away for safe-keeping. Like any good daughter would."

Where?" Dee demanded, forgetting her place in this situation, outnumbered and outgunned.

"Somewhere you will never find her," the sorceress told her, smirking superiorly. DeeDee smirked back, then, lacking another way to lash out, smashed the lantern on the ground at her sister's feet. It exploded in a cloud of purple smoke, providing her and her friends an unexpected and welcome opportunity for escape.

"Go!" ordered Cain. They rushed from the room.

Halfway down the hall, Dee heard a shout from back within the room and glanced back to find that Cain was not with them. She skidded to a halt, but Glitch and Raw each took hold of an arm, pulling her away.

"No!" She shouted at them. "Cain!"

"He want you to run," Raw told her. She knew it was true, even without Raw's second sight, but everything in her rebelled against leaving one of their own behind. She battled with herself for a moment and then was running with the other two instead of pulling against them. Were she to keep fighting, she would get them both caught and perhaps killed, too. She vowed that if anything happened to Cain she would make Azkadellia pay. Not just pay, she would make her _suffer_.

At the base of the stairs she heard an in human shriek behind them and turned back to see what looked like small gargoyles swooping down.

"Mobats!" Glitch shouted. The things were bearing down on them. "Split up!"

He released her and pealed off to one side, Raw did the same on the other. She picked up her pace as much as she could, but all she could think was, _Splitting up has never been a good idea!_

Above her head, she heard the rush of wings and was knocked to the ground by a firm body slamming into her back. The thing was joined by another and they grasped her, flapping frantically. They lifted her into the air and she screamed. She kicked and wriggled and managed to free herself of Glitch's coat, dropping to the ground some ten feet below with a grunt of pain. She immediately rolled to her feet and was off and running again. The moats above her screamed in rage.

She could hear Glitch shouting off somewhere in the vast hall. Raw cried out her name once, then was silent. She felt tears of fear cold on her cheeks, images of awful fates befalling her friends. Then the mobats were on her again, more of them this time. They hoisted her into the air and no amount of struggling could free her from their tight little grasping paws.

They carried her away, towards Azkadellia's cruel clutches, she knew. A flurry of movement caught her eye and she looked down.

"Glitch!" she screamed. The man was face down, mobats swarming over his back. She could not even tell if he were alive or…

Then she was hovering before her sister, who was gazing at her like the cat who's had the canary.

"Welcome back, little sister," she cooed. "There's no place like the O.Z.."

She clapped her hands once and the mobats dropped her fifteen feet to the marble floor. She shrieked as she went, the cliffside flashing through her memory. She hit the ground hard on her side, head cracking against the marble. There was a flash of light and she knew no more.


	12. Wake Up, Little Suzy

**Note: It has been brought to my attention that there are typoes in my work. Im aware. I have a crappy keyboard and a crappy autocorrect and i write too fast to catch every mistake. If you want it fast, i throw a few words onto the fire in sacrifice. I dont use a beta because it slows things down and im the impatient sort. I appreciate the concern, but that's just how i roll, y'all. **

**Here our heroine is mentally screwed with. poor kid.**

**ps:... mmm... deliecious baby tears... mmmm... tastes like innocence and trust.**

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When DeeDee awoke, she was astonished to find she was in the bed chamber in the Silver Queen's ice palace. Only it was no long iced over, but warm and bright. The room was decorated in rich garnet and gold hues, the bed beneath her was soft and warm. She saw a figure standing in the window. Her mother. The woman's hair was a deep black, which seemed wrong somehow, but she did not know why; it fell over one shoulder and she toyed with it as she turned to smile at her daughter. She vanished. DeeDee sat up, looking about the room. Was it a hallucination? Was she seeing things from when she hit her head?

Wait, when had she hit her head? But her mother was back, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I've missed you," the Queen said warmly. Again, something seemed wrong, but she could not place it.

"I don't even know you," she told the woman, who continued to smile tenderly.

"Your light is strong," the Queen said. "Let it guide you through your memories."

DeeDee found she was now sitting beside her mother, feet dangling off the side of the bed. She was wearing the same uniform as a server at Em's Diner, a cornflower blue plaid overall dress over a white blouse. Antoine/Daisy's ruby slippers glittered up at her below the skirt's hem.

"I'm a waitress?" she said in horror. "I don't think I can do this."

She glanced up, but her mother was gone again. She sat before the vanity on the other side of the room, humming Two Little Princesses as she combed her long, impossibly black hair.

Then, she was by Dee's side again. It occurred to her that something was wrong with all of this, but the answer eluded her like a glimmering fish darting through the water. Her mother pressed her palm to Dee's and then turned it over, showing them side by side with identical stylized eye symbols glowing on their skin.

"I'm scared," she said. She felt the fear, but did not know the cause, which only made her more afraid.

"When you were a girl," her mother said, ignoring her admission. "I used to rock you in our special place.

She did not elaborate on that statement, leaving Dee completely bewildered. _How is that going to help me fight…_

"Remember!" her mother commanded from her place at the harp, interrupting Dee's thought before she could finish it.

She jolted awake and found herself sitting in her recliner, some awful daytime talk show on the TV before her. She stared at it a moment in utter shock.

"What?" she squeaked. A dream? Had it all been just a dream? It seemed impossible. She refused to believe it. Dee jumped up from her chair and rushed down the stairs. The house was the same it had been the night before when she went to work. The vase on the mantel stood, unbroken. She could hear her mother singing some crappy country song in the kitchen. She peeked around the doorway into the room to confirm it.

Her mother (her _mother,_ not some robot) stood before the sink, doing dishes. Dee leaned back against the wall and felt a wave of relief wash over her. It was immediately followed by a wave of crushing sadness as three sets of eyes flashed through her mind, one tawny, one ice blue, and one deep chocolate. It had been a dream. Her friends were not real. She was not a princess. She slid down the wall to the floor and felt the tears come.

"Peanut?" her mother called from the kitchen. "Is that you?"

She hurriedly wiped at her eyes, tamping down on the ridiculous sorrow that burned her chest and throat. She wasn't a child. She knew fairytales were fake. She stood and walked into the kitchen.

"Who else would it be?" she asked, trying to sound like her normal, smart-alecky self. Her mother turned concerned eyes on her.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" Her mother's concern had always elicited the opposite response from her than was intended. She cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders, tears drying up like a switch had been flicked.

"I'm fine. Bad dream is all," she said, shortly. She opened the refrigerator and took out the orange juice, drinking from the carton.

"You could use a glass," her mother said, as she always did. Dee ignored her as always. This back to normal. It should have been a good thing, but somehow was not. "Frank Girard called."

This piqued her interest. Frank was her boss at the textile plant. "What did he want?" she asked, afraid he had told her mother about her being laid off. She did not want her mother worrying about her getting another job. Yes, things were back to normal.

"He said they need you to come in tonight."

This took her by surprise. "What?"

"Javier," her mother mispronounced the man's name, stressing the J, as she always did. Javier Menendez was the other night guard, who had kept his position though she had lost hers. "Got deported this morning."

"No shit!" Dee exclaimed. She silently thanked whatever gods existed, all of them. Now she would not have to don that blue plaid dress. Her mother frowned.

"You know I don't like it when you curse," she admonished. Dee shrugged. Her mother went back to the dishes. After a moment, she said, "So, bad dream?"

"Yeah," Dee said, though it was only half true. She could still hear Glitch's laugh in her mind, still feel Cain's strength. She bit her lip to fight off the tears creeping up her throat.

"What was it about?"

Dee had not told her mother about any of her dreams, nightmare or not, in more than a decade. The woman had long since ceased asking about them.

"I don't want to talk about it," the girl said. Her mother seemed to sigh in irritation.

"Perhaps you should try writing it down," her mom suggested. "Might make a good story."

Dee nodded. She often wrote her dreams down, especially if they seemed interesting enough to develop into a story. She was an aspiring author after all.

"What did you just say?" she turned to the woman washing dishes.

"What, Peanut?"

In all her life she had never once heard her mother use the word "perhaps". Not _once_.

The woman turned back to her and DeeDee looked into her eyes. Her mother looked happy, truly happy. _Son of a bitch._

"Where's dad?" she asked, nonchalantly. _Oh, please, oh, please!_

"He's at work, of course," her mother laughed. She almost shouted with the emotion of it all.

"Hard to do when you've been dead twenty years," she intoned. Her mother's face fell.

"I'm sorry, Peanut," she said, walking towards the wall. The scene fell away like a curtain and revealed a huge, dark room. It looked like the interior decorator's color palate had consisted of black, black, and black. A few Long Coats, including the much loathed Zero, were also in the room. And a man wearing a latex version of an old fashioned scientist's uniform. This one looked at her as though she were a particularly interesting specimen of bacteria.

Azkadellia, now wearing a gold corset and cauldrons over a black skirt, patted her mother's arm reassuringly. "It's alright, Mommo," she said, using Dee's adolescent nickname for her mom. The robot who would have been her father stood there, too, looking chagrinned. Of course, if Azkadellia had resorted to delving into their programming to get information on her, she would have found that he believed he was her father. Oops.

"You're a sick twist, you know that?" Dee inquired of her sister.

"Why?" Azkadellia challenged. "Because with a little rewiring I've gotten something I missed out on for too long? A mother's love, a father's affection?"

Dee rolled her eyes. She tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. It wasn't a dream, it _was _real. _They_ were real.

"What about your real parents?" she asked the sorceress. Obviously, Dee had been shipped off to Earth all those years ago, but Azkadellia had stayed behind with Mommy and Daddy.

"_Our_ parents," Azkadellia corrected. "Daddy, the thief, abandoned us after you… Died… Mother never forgave him for that. Had his name officially banished from the lands." She gave a short, mocking laugh. "Ever the drama queen."

"Where is she?" Dee demanded. Azkadellia strolled towards a huge circular tank of unappetizing green liquid.

"There came a time when she had to be… Isolated." The sorceress turned a valve on the tank and a vision of the queen materialized. She had that lost, searching look on her face again. DeeDee took a reflexive step forward.

"DG where are you?" her mother's visage called. That woman was the key to finding her true self. She had to get to her. Once she found her, everything would fall into place.

"It can be arranged for the two of you to be together," Azkadellia said, as though reading her mind. "But first, you have to do something for me."

The elder sister spun the valve again and the queen disappeared, replaced with the scene from the bedroom. The secret.

"DG, just tell me where the emerald is," Azkadellia said, in a soft, coaxing voice. "Just tell me what she whispered to you and I will take you to her. I promise."

It was like the Eastern Guild all over again.

"I already told you that I don't remember," she growled at her sister.

"We can pry those memories out of her," Zero spoke up, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. Azkadellia looked at him reproachfully.

"Zero, she's my sister," she admonished, sounding like she had real emotion invested in DeeDee's well-being. She sighed and looked as though she were disappointed in herself. "I guess I haven't made this much of a family reunion, have I?"

"Well, I had hoped for a picnic," DeeDee shot back, snarkily. What was Azkadellia's game here? Her sister stepped closer and gave her a beseeching look.

"I want to show you something. Share something with you," she said, sincerely. She slipped her arm through Dee's and the girl fought back the urge to pull away. She contented herself with an internal cringe of disgust. The sorceress led her out large glass doors onto a huge balcony. The view was spectacular and DeeDee did not even want to think about how high up they were.

"The majestic queen of the O.Z. had two lovely daughters she," Azkadellia intoned, bringing Dee to the stone railing. "Double eclipse, it is foreseen. Light meets dark in the stillness between. But only one and one alone shall hold the emerald and take the throne."

She released DeeDee then, and resting her hands on the rail, gazing out over the land. The suns were setting (rising? Dee had no concept of the time or sense of direction) and the sky was light up in brilliant purple and pink and gold. A storm was rolling in from the horizon, thunder clapped sanding a chill down Dee's spine.

"What is that, anyway? That poem," she asked. "Some ominous and ancient O.Z. prophecy?"

Azkadellia turned to her with an indulgent smile. "It's a nursery rhyme," she chided. "A few couplets that roll pleasingly off the tongue. It's not _who we are_, DG."

_You would say that, you're the dark one,_ she thought, mockingly. "You killed me," she reminded her sister, flatly. Azkadellia's eyes teared up and her voice hitched.

"I was just a child," she said, full of sorrow. "I foolishly believed the part about 'only one and one alone'."

DeeDee almost snorted. "But not now?"

"I believe that the prophecy can be what you and I make of it," Azkadellia insisted. _So long as we make it with me dead_, Dee added in her mind. "DG, we were such good friends," the elder sister said, stepping close. "We spent hours imagining what the O.Z. would be like when we grew up. Please, you must remember that."

Dee lifted a dubious eyebrow. "Friends?"

"We'd explore the woods," she mused wistfully. Woods. Something in the back of Dee's mind screamed at that statement, but was silenced as Azkadellia went on. "Gather apples, skip little stones across the lake."

She gave a small laugh. Dee's stomach twisted in annoyance. "We drove mother crazy with worry."

"Alright, enough," Dee snapped, unable to take this farce any longer. "I know what you're trying to do and I'm not buying this 'Keys to the Kingdom' crap."

Azkadellia's mask of sweet remembrance cracked. "I'm not doing anything," she insisted sweetly. "I just want what the prophecy can bring to both of us. It's our birthright, our change to make a new O.Z.. Just… tell me where it is."

"I don't fucking remember!" Dee said loudly. Azkadellia smiled sadly a moment more. She reached up to toy with a strand of Dee's hair. The younger sister pulled away.

"DG, my lovely little sister," Azkadellia said, her voice endearing. Then the mask fell away entirely and the cold, cruel sorceress was back. "That was the wrong answer."

She snapped her fingers and the Long Coats came out onto the balcony, led by Zero.

"Now, we do it your way," Azkadellia told him. He caught her from behind.

"I'll take her for a reading with Lylo," he said.

"If you remember nothing else, remember this," the sorceress told her threateningly, as Zero dragged her away. "The next time I snuff out your insignificant little life, there'll be no one standing by to save you."


	13. Down and Down and Down

**Down into the depths of the tower we go. What will we find there? Nothing good.**

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DeeDee was brought back into the room and strapped into a chair before the vat of green goo. The door burst open and the creepy scientist entered, leading two Long Coats who were dragging-

"Raw!" she cried in alarm and relief. But the beast-man looked up and it was not Raw.

"Lylo," the creature insisted, pitifully. He was shoved roughly into the chair beside her. The scientist, Dr. Strange she called him in her mind, pulled a pair of wires down from above and attached them to the Viewer's head in the same places Raw had borne sores. Lylo whimpered, tears already soaking his fur.

"Now, Lylo, "Azkadellia commanded. "Tell me her memories."

The beast sat, whimpering in his seat until Dr. Strange stuck him with what resembled a cattle prod. It apparently had the same effect because Lylo's body tensed and he cried out in anguish. He took hold of her arm and she felt the same sort of pushing she had with Raw, only now it was stronger and panicky. Lylo shuddered in pain and closed his eyes, concentrating on working his way into her mind. She tried to block him, even thought she could see it hurt him dearly. Azkadellia was shouting harsh encouragements at him. Dee felt him break through any defense she might have presented and begin searching through her mind. She felt thoroughly violated.

"Tell me where it is, Lylo!" Azkadellia demanded.

"Can't find it!" Lylo cried, all fear and panic and pain. DeeDee could feel his pain backwash through her system like a dull ache.

"Stop!" she cried to Lylo. No one could endure that much anguish for long. What if her lack of memory killed the poor thing? "Stop, Lylo!"

"Don't you _dare_ stop, Lylo," Azkadellia warned. Dr. Strange stepped forward and zapped the Viewer again, the shock transferred to Dee through his hand on her arm and she cried out with him.

"No! No!" she yelled, tears falling form her own eyes now. The green liquid in the tank bubbled, but no image presented itself. "Stop!" Dee yelled this to her sister.

"A whisper, Lylo," the sorceress told the beast, impatiently. "All I'm looking for a secret whisper to a little girl."

"Lylo can't find!" he insisted. The good doctor shocked him again. Dee screamed in pain and rage. She'd shove that cattle prod right down his throat, if she could only get out of this chair.

"Focus," Azkadellia commanded.

"Something… Something protecting her memories!" Lylo cried.

"Break through, now!"

"Lylo is _trying_!" he screamed. Her sister was unmoved.

"Don't try, _do,_" she told him.

"Stop, Azkadellia! How can he remember when I can't?" Dee shouted in vain.

"What did mother whisper into DG's ear about the emerald?" she demanded of the blubbering viewer. Suddenly, the green goo glowed and she could see her mother and herself as a child laying on the bed.

"No!" Dee shouted.

"Only thing that can stop Azkadellia," Lylo said.

"Focus, Lylo. Where is it?" Dr. Strange zapped him again. DeeDee shouted.

"I am gonna fucking kill you!" she screamed at the man.

"All is gray!" Lylo wailed. "Emerald within the Gray Gale!"

"Gray Gale?" Azkadellia turned to the tank, gazing at it searchingly. "What is the Gray Gale?"

"Don't know!" Lylo said, pleadingly. "Can't see!"

The swirling liquid in the tank showed nothing again. She whirled on the Viewer. "Where is it?"

"Hurts to reach into her memories. Memories surrounded by…" he paused, eyes wide in surprise. "Magic."

All at once his face went blank. DeeDee struggled against her bonds.

"Lylo?!" she called to him. He gasped once then slumped over, eyes closed. She thought he might have stopped breathing. "No! Lylo!"

"Magic," Azkadellia said, as if accusing DeeDee of witchcraft. "I don't have to guess who's responsible for that, do I?"

"I can't even _do_ magic!" Dee insisted in alarm. What if the beast was dead? Had something in her killed him?

"Not you, you fool," Azkadellia said, her voice hard and mocking. Her eyes were cold and angry, her voice flat when she said, "Mother."

Azkadellia waved her hand at the Long Coats. "Take her away. Lock her in a cell," she ordered. Then spared the barest of glances at the limp beast. "And bring me another Viewer."

Zero grinned at her as his men pulled her from the chair. He reached for her arm, but she swung out at him, just missing. He laughed at her.

"Be careful," he warned her, his voice teasing. "Your tin man isn't around to protect you anymore."

He held up his hand, finger pointing towards her like a gun and mimicked taking a shot. She snarled at him. "You wouldn't have the sack!" she accused. He only laughed again and motioned for his men to take her away.

She did not struggle with the Long Coats who led her down and down through Azkadellia's tower. The cells were in the bowels of the structure. There was very little light, so it was hard to see, but DeeDee could make out pipes running along the walls and grates set into the ceiling at various points. Odd liquids dripped from above and puddled on the floor. It smelled of sulfur and fear and awfulness. She could hear people, beings, in cells as she passed. They cried, they whimpered, they whispered manically to themselves. She had thought her small home town was Hell, but this place was a new level entirely.

A loud roar reverberated through the passageways, silencing all else. It was filled with rage and anguish and it was familiar.

"Raw!" she cried back. She could not tell from where the sound came, it seemed to come from everywhere. It was both a relief and not for her. Her friend was alive. But he was also trapped here in this terrible place.

The Long Coats led her to an empty cell and shoved her inside. One went to a device built into the wall and turned a crank. The cell door slid down from the ceiling. The Long Coats left her, then. Alone with her thoughts, DeeDee crumpled to the floor. Zero had to be lying. Cain was not dead. He _could not_ be dead. She would know if he were. She would _know_. She cried, not even trying to stop herself. If Cain was dead, what about Glitch? Glitch who seemed so unable to fend for himself. Was he sitting alone in that ice palace, slowing fading away? Or was he already gone?

"I have a theory," came a voice from the cell across from hers. "Which can't be unproven."

She crawled to the cell door and peered out, wiping at her nose.

"Mystic Man?" her asked, her voice croaky.

"It is called, the "Or Not" theory," he continued.

"You son of a bitch," she shouted at him. "You sent us to that place and now my friends-"

"Ah, ah, ah!" he interrupted, coming to stand at his own cell door. "You know they wouldn't put you in a cell near mine unless they wanted to hear us talk."

"I don't give a fuck," she told him, swallowing back her sorrow and fear, letting the anger shine through.

"First, you must journey to the north," he said. "Or not."

"Cracked out old bastard," she muttered, then louder. "Yeah, I went north. Found the ice palace. My mother's the Queen, my sister is Azkadellia. And she found me! All thanks to you and your _vapors_. You sure you're not high now?"

"I've never been clearer in my whole life," he said, solemnly. Then, his voice turned manic, belying his previous statement. "It's aaaall coming back to me. My troubled childhood, a rich life of scholarly pursuit, my brief but glamorous life in show business, although that part is a little bit hazy."

The ground beneath her knees began to vibrate and a loud clanging echoed down the passageways, seemingly coming from the walls themselves. When it passed, the Mystic Man spoke again.

"Did you feel that?" he asked. She grunted in reply. "They're testing a machine."

"And?" she snapped. "What's it for?" she asked, though she did not want to hear anymore from this man who had sent them to such an unfortunate place.

"The complete destruction of the O.Z.," he told her. That caught her attention and diverted it from anger and worry.

"Is that why she needs the emerald?" she looked at him for confirmation, but he only mouthed silently, _"Don't talk about the emerald."_ Fuck. "What am I going to do?" she said then, not sure if she was talking to him, herself, or the gods in general. He seemed to look sympathetic.

"There is so much I would like to tell you," he said, voice filled with regret. "But Azkadellia's eyes and ears are all over us now."

Perhaps she had judged him too harshly, for he seemed genuinely sorry. She decided to try his silent speech technique. _"Tell me what you know about the Gray Gale."_

He began to laugh, sounding almost delighted. "The Gray Gale," he said loudly. So loudly, in fact, she knew that it was for Azkadellia's ears and not her own that he spoke. "Is a myth, dreamt up by the ancients to entertain their children."

The meaningful look he gave her said that the Gray Gale was so much more than that. She slumped down, leaning her forehead against the cell door. So, she was trapped next to the man with all the answers, and, completely lucid now, he could impart none of them to her. This was what she had prayed was not a dream. Friends dead or imprisoned. Herself locked in a dank cell. No hope of escape or rescue while her sister tried to destroy the world. And yet, she could not wish it all away.

"Do not lose hope," the Mystic Man commanded softly.

"Why not?" she challenged. He smiled softly at her.

"The answer to that, is as timeless as the moons," he said, as he had in the Twister Club. "To lose hope, is to lose all."

"And what if I've already lost it all?"

"If you had lost it all, you'd have no hope left to lose," he said. The logic of that statement was convoluted at best, yet somehow it rung true.

"I'm sorry I slapped you," she told him. He chuckled, rubbing his cheek.

"Apology accepted," he assured her. "What I can tell you is that your mother cloaked your memories with magic, so that Azkadellia can not get to them."

"Great," she huffed. "The only problem is, neither can I."

"Yes you can," he insisted. She shook her head.

"Everyone around here is great with 'To Do' lists, but the '_How_ To Do' lists are somewhat lacking," she told him, sarcastically.

"She said you must unlock your memories," he intoned, but again, lacking the how. "Your light must brighten a place that is dark." The way he said this conveyed that the statement was not to be taken at face value. A metaphor? "In the south."

"Ooh," she said. The whole "Or Not" theory thing made so much more sense now.

"It is where you will find a message about your future. And your past."

She would have said something else, but she could hear someone approaching. Azkadellia lead a trio of Long Coats down the corridor. One opened the door to the Mystic Man's cell. She stepped inside.

"So eager to please the wrong sister," she accused dolefully.

"Azkadellia. As I live and breathe," the old wizard greeted her, dryly. He chuckled. "So far."

"I don't know which is more pathetic," the sorceress mused. "You on the vapors or off."

"Your sister is more powerful than you," he told her, his voice almost mocking. Dee's sister smiled in that superior way.

"She will never be as powerful as me," she insisted.

"Then why are you so scared?" the Mystic Man asked on a whisper, smiling. Azkadellia's hand shot up as if to slap him, but hovered just aside his cheek. He chuckled at her. "I know you… Witch."

"What do you know?" Azkadellia asked as though the answer meant a great deal. But he did not answer. Dee felt the hair on her arms and all over her scalp stand on end. Azkadellia opened her lips and the Mystic Man's mouth fell wide. The same gossamer smoke began to drift from him to her sister, the same as her mother's had drifted into her in Raw's vision.

"No! Azkadellia don't!" she cried, rattling the door to her cell. The Long Coats standing by looked away, shifting in discomfort.

"Unlock your memories," the Mystic Man's voice commanded in her ear, as though he stood right beside her. She looked in shock, but there was no one. She looked back just in time to see his color drain from his skin, his eyes rolled up. The should have been white, but were black instead.

"No!" she cried again as he fell to the ground. Azkadellia gave a shudder. One of the Long Coats, obviously highest in command, stepped forward and helped her from the cell. She paused and looked in on her little sister, still kneeling on the cell floor.

"Not so great and terrible after all," she said, cruelly, and walked away. For what seemed like forever DeeDee could just sit and stare at the fallen body of the wise and powerful Mystic Man.


	14. How to Find Friends and Escape Prison

**I love when things come together.**

**PS: you know.. there is a bit of Cain/DG fluff that gets nearly 9 more reviews a chapter than i do.**

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Some men came eventually and took the body away. DeeDee had never felt so empty in her whole life. She was losing people, one by one. Her mother, Cain, Glitch, Raw, and now the Mystic Man. In her old life she might have given in to the thoughts of self slaughter that tried to crowd into her mind. That was when she only had herself and her mother to worry about. If she fell, all was lost for the O.Z.. She took a deep breath and pulled herself together. After she had found the Emerald of the Eclipse and stopped Azkadellia she could allow these maudlin ideas to overcome her. Now, the whole world was depending on her.

She Looked out of her cell and could see, diagonally across from her door the crank which opened the doors. She stared at it for a moment. She had seen movies where people used bed sheets to make a rope and used the rope to operate the door mechanisms to escape. This information was just shy of useless, as there was no bed in the cell, thus, no sheets. She only had her shirt and pants, even with the ruby slippers she didn't think she could reach the crank. She looked down at her hand, the symbol plain as a scar now. It had opened the door to the ice palace. Maybe…

She held up the hand, facing the crank and closed her eyes. She concentrated on moving the crank. She visualized the crank moving and the cell door opening. She saw herself stepping out of the cell. She saw the crank move… saw it move… fucking _move!_

She gave up with a sigh of frustration. That was when she saw the rat. It was rather large, about the size of a 20oz soda bottle. _Christ, what do they feed these things?_ It was sniffling around the corridor, apparently looking for something to eat. She glanced around her cell, looking for something left over from the previous occupant. Jackpot! On the floor, off to the side, was a shallow platter of what had once been food. It was now crusted and moldy, but hey, rats aren't very picky. She took a pinch of the yuck in the bowl and flicked it towards the rat, who eagerly gobbled it up.

Maybe she wasn't the kind of princess who could sing woodland critters into doing her chores, but she _was_ the kind who could think on her feet. She flicked another bit of food closer to the crank. The rat followed. It turned to look at her. She smiled. _Smart little shit,_ she thought with adoration. She flicked the offering up onto the crank's mounting. The rat looked at her a moment before scurrying towards it.

"Gotta work for your meal," she told it. It scampered up the pipes lining the wall and onto the mounting. She tossed the last bit onto one of the crank handles. Working perfectly to plan, the rat went for the food, but its weight was too much and the crank turned, opening the cell door. Except that it was the door to the Mystic Man's cell and not her own. "Shit!"

She turned to get more food, when a shrill barking startled her. A small terrier ran down the corridor and chased her rat away. "Hey! Goddammit!" The dog barked at her and wagged it's tail. It resembled Benji, from those old movies. "Yes, very cute. How am I gonna get out of here now?"

Talking to a dog. She was losing it, she thought. But the thing seemed to understand her and actually hopped up onto the crank mounting. As she watched, it barked to her excitedly, and then turned the mechanism with its paw. Her cell door slip upward. _I love animals in the O.Z._.

"Thanks!" she called to it before darting off down the corridor. It barked shrilly after her. She turned and it barked again, walking a few steps away, then barked again. So, it wanted her to follow it. _What, girl? Timmy fell in the well?_ She shook her head. "I have to find my friend first."

She ran down the prison corridors, which seemed to be set up like spokes on a wheel. She did not dare call Raw's name for fear a guard would hear her. She knew she had little time before someone discovered she was missing, but she could not leave him here.

"DeeDee!" she heard from the cell she had just passed.

"Raw!" she hissed back, so happy to see him alive and unharmed. He reached through the cell door and she squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I'm gonna get you out of here," she promised. There was an identical crank mechanism not far away. She rushed to it and turned it. The wrong cell door opened. "I suck at this," she berated herself, closing that door and trying again. This time Raw's cell opened. The dog barked at them and, hands joined, the two followed it down the corridor.

They managed to make it out of the prison area unseen. From there they entered a labyrinth of halls. They all looked the same and DeeDee would have become very lost very quickly if not for the small guide leading them. The last hall opened out into what looked like a vast boiler room. She decided this must be where the water and heat to the whole tower must be controlled. The dog urged them forward between the enormous tanks hissing and spewing steam. Suddenly, Benji came to a halt, growling. Up ahead, she could see the shadows of two people approaching through the steam.

"Long Coats!" Raw warned quietly, pulling her off to the side of the walkway, between two of the boilers. A rack of tools hung on the wall behind them and he took a large wrench from it, pushing her to stand behind him. The footsteps of the Long Coats grew closer. DeeDee held her breath as they passed. Raw lashed out and caught the one nearest them in the back of the skull with the wrench and he went down with a grunt. The other turned on them, ready to attack.

"Oh! That could bust a zipper!" the fallen Long Coat whined in pain.

"Glitch?" Raw said, looking down at him.

She barely heard this, because she had looked at his compatriot and just then her whole world focused on what, at that moment, were the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.

"Hey, there, Princess," the other Long Coat said to her in a wonderfully familiar voice.

"Cain!" she heard herself squeal. She threw herself into the man, wrapping her arms around him tightly. "You're alive!" she breathed as if to reassure herself it was true. It was, she could feel his heart beating, even through the leather trench coat he wore. He held her close for a moment, then cleared his throat, pushing her gently away.

"Just barely," came a jovial laugh beside her. "Furry lips here really packs a punch."

She turned and pulled the jester close, breathing in his scent, which she had feared lost forever. He patted her back with one hand and chuckled. He rubbed the back of his head with the other hand.

"Missed you, too," he told her. She released him reluctantly. There would be more time for this later.

"How do we get out of here?" she asked.

"Well we can't go out the way we came in," Cain said, gesturing down the way DeeDee and Raw had been headed, and Glitch and himself had just come.

"Why?" she asked. Before he could answer, Benji barked impatiently and ran off in a new direction. She hurried after him. "This way!"

The dog led them down a set of stairs and into another boiler room. Cain, who had taken the lead, pulled everyone to a halt. More of Azkadellia's creepy scientist were working in this room, looking over various dials and gauges. It was at that moment DeeDee realized Cain was wearing his hat, which he had not been when the first found each other. _Where the Hell did that come from?_ He peered at the scientists from behind a boiler. Glitch hurried across the isle and did the same from the other side. Raw ran up behind Cain just as an alarm started to sound within the tower. DeeDee's escape had finally been noticed.

Cain did not look pleased. But the alarm drew the creepy scientists away, clearing their path. The dog scampered forward and Dee followed. Cain tried to grab her as she passed, but he missed. The other followed in her wake. The dog led her into a row of boilers and what looked like turbines. It was a difficult path which required them to climb over the huge connecting cylinders between. At the end, Benji stopped and turned back to bark at her.

"Which way?" she asked. The dog only barked again. "I don't speak dog! Which way!"

"You're taking directions from a dog," Cain said in flat disbelief behind her. She turned to snap at him, but realized he might be right.

"Which way boy?" Glitch asked, coaxingly. "Left?" He pointed one way and then the other. "Or left?"

The dog barked and disappeared beneath a row of pipes. A shout came from far behind them.

"Long Coats!" Raw warned. The dog barked again, from up above this time, and Dee saw that he was standing inside a large piece of open machinery.

"I think he wants us to go in there," she said. _Or he's laughing at me for trusting my life to a terrier I just met._

"I think we'd better," Cain said, pushing her forward. "Hurry."

They climbed into the opening, which fed into a huge, pipe. It was pitch black so they had to feel along the wall. She tripped and Cain, who had been behind her, fall onto her. Glitch and Raw blindly helped them to their feet. She could not hear the Long Coats in pursuit and hoped they did not follow them into this inky blackness. After far too long in the dark to suit her tastes, she could see light up ahead. The ground suddenly dropped away beneath her in a high angled slide and she dropped down. Cain caught her arm, just barely. They all made their way down the pipe and out into the light of day. Twin suns never looked so good, she decided.

They raced away from the tower and into the woods beyond. They did not stop running until the alarm had faded out, far behind them.


	15. Old Dog, New Trick

**Our heroine meets up with an old"friend" who is more than meets the eye.**

**PS:... you must really hate babies.**

DeeDee didn't think she had ever run so far in her life. Her lungs burned and her legs ached. She fell to her knees on the soft litter of the forest floor. She could hear the others panting behind her. Benji stood before her, wagging his tail and wuffling.

"You're my favorite dog, now," she assured him between gasps. "I swear I'll let you hump whoever's leg you want, so long as it's not mine."

She heard Cain snort and Glitch laugh breathlessly behind her. And then the weirdest thing since her arrival in the O.Z. happened, and that was saying a lot. The small terrier stretched and morphed into a rotund black man.

"Was _not_ expecting that!" Dee exclaimed, falling over her heels as she tried to crawl backwards away from him. Cain reached down and pulled her to her feet, pushing her behind himself.

"It's okay," the dog-now-a-man said, holding up his hands. I'm a friend. I'm a friend of your mother's. She sent me to help."

"Which mother?" Dee asked over Cain's shoulder. The three males now stood side by side by side, creating a living wall between her and the shape-shifter.

"The Queen, of course," he said. "We should get going. We've got an emerald to find."

"_I_'ve got an emerald to find. I don't know about you, pal," she snapped at him. Cain glanced back, silencing her with a look.

"Glitch and I left our things by the river," he said. That meant he wasn't carrying his gun. She understood. If the stranger was really a threat, they had no way to stop him. The shifter gestured for Cain to lead the way, which he did. They walked, Cain to one side of her, Glitch to the other, Raw just behind. The dog-man trailed them a little behind and off to one side.

At the river, Cain quickly shed his black trench coat and pulled the pistol from his holster. He held it as he slipped back into the gunbelt and his own gray coat. The shape-shifter had sat on a fallen log and was tossing pebbles into the shallow water. Soon, Glitch had his own brown coat on, which looked none the worse for wear from the mobat incident. DeeDee looked back at the tower, which could be seen above the treetops.

"You ready, kid?" Cain asked.

"That machine we escaped through," she began. "The Mystic Man said she's going to use it to destroy the O.Z.."

"Wait a second," Cain said, coming to where she stood. "You saw the Mystic Man?"

She saw the hope in his eyes and felt it like a spike through her chest. She lay a comforting hand on his arm. "I'm sorry. He's gone, Cain," she told him as gently as she could. "She killed him."

His gaze fell away and she wished she had done more to help the old wizard back in that prison. Not that there was anything she could have done, but she wished there had been. Cain nodded and shrugged off whatever emotion he had been feeling._ That can't be healthy._

"He said she needs the emerald to make the machine work. That's why she's after it," she told them. Glitch's eyes brightened with suddenly intense interest.

"That's interesting," he said. "How?"

Before she could answer, the shape-shifter piped up. "Folks," he said, with a touch of impatience. "I suggest we keep moving."

"Sorry, pooch," Cain told the man. "but, this is where we part company."

"Part?" the stranger asked, confused.

"With the Long Coats on our trail after us and mobats in the sky, I don't have time to figure out what your angle is in all of this," Cain told him straight out.

"My angle is her mother sent me to help," the black man said, smiling congenially. Maybe it was her encounter with Azkadellia tinting her view, but she was not comfortable trusting this man. Of course, her intuitive compass had not been all that accurate when it came to her birth mother and things adjacent.

"And you did," the tin man said. "I'd even thank you for what you did back there if I knew who you were. Or what."

The stranger looked ready to argue further, but Glitch stepped between him and Cain.

"Whoa!" he interceded. "Look here Mr. Suspicious, this is the man… dog…" he faltered, then leaned in close to whisper. "_Thingie_… that helped us escape."

"Shape-shifter," Raw said. Glitch agreed.

"Yes, Mr. Raw," the man said in thanks. _Wait._

"He knew your name," Glitch said her thought aloud. He turned, suddenly suspicious. "How did you know his name?"

"I know all of your names," the shifter said, matter-of-factly. "You're Mr. Glitch, Former advisor to the Queen herself. Mr. Raw, a Viewer of extraordinary skill. And you, Mr. Cain, you were a tin man on the Mystic Man's protection detail."

If she had been slightly uneasy before, DeeDee was acutely uncomfortable now. He reached into his pocket and her heart lurched into her throat.

"You're all quite famous in the O.Z.," he had removed a folded piece of paper from his pocket and opened it. "Quite in demand. Dead or alive."

He proffered what turned out to be a wanted poster, divided in four, showing all of their faces and names. Glitch took it and stared.

"That is a terrible picture of me," he said, unhappily. Cain and Raw grunted in agreement. Glitch glanced back and then, a hurt expression on his face. Were she not so agitated, Dee would have giggled.

"Now, look," the stranger said, trying to sound reasonable. "I'm sorry if I scared any of you back there, but there's never really a great time for the whole 'beast into man' moment. Just, WOOM! And hope for the best."

Glitch chuckled. DeeDee was not satisfied. "I don't know." she said, stepping around Cain. "I mean, we still don't know you."

"Don't you?" he challenged, smiling. He reached into another pocket and Cain put his hand to his gun in readiness. But the stranger simply produced a small doll, a princess in a green dress.

"Hey, that's mine!" she said, no knowing where it came from. It felt true, though.

"It was your when you were a child," the man told her. It was the first thing out of his mouth that she believed. Something clicked in the back of her head and a small area behind her heart. The doll popped form the man's grasp and began spinning in midair. DeeDee grabbed Cain's sleeve in alarm and the doll jerked to the side. She could feel it spinning _inside_ herself.

"Whoa!" This from Glitch.

"Jesus," she breathed. "Am _I _doing that?"

"Indeed you are," the man said. She urged the doll forward and it actually obeyed, moving towards her. "Magic is in your blood."

She reached out and snatched the doll from the air. She felt dizzy, as though _she_ had been the one spinning around and around.

"Let it shed light on your past, so that you may better understand your future," the shifter advised. "Now, concentrate, DG. Concentrate."

She felt something pushing at her mind, not the man, something from within. She felt herself drifting away under it. She grabbed hold of Cain's hand as she lost herself.

_DG was a seven annual-old girl, standing by the sparkling waters of a pond. Her mother sat and did needle-point not far away._

"_Concentrate, DG," her teacher commanded. "You must let the light flow through you effortlessly."_

_She was trying, but, like always, nothing was happening. The doll that stood on her outstretched hand did not move. It never cooperated and spun the way her sister, Kady's did. She was frustrated and angry. The teacher never taught her the way he taught Azkadellia. He would hold her hand and tell her just where to look for the light, how it felt, how to control it. All he ever did with her was tell her to do it. She didn't know _how

"_Remember, light as air," he told her, for the fourth time._

"_Toto!" she whined. He huffed._

"_It's _tutor_. Now, focus," he snapped. She knew it annoyed him when she called him that, which is why she did it. It served him right for not teaching her properly._

"_I'm _trying_, but this thing won't float!" she was losing patience entirely. This was how all her lessons with Toto ended. She lost her temper and ran away, crying. Kady, who had been reading a book nearby, had apparently had enough. She snapped her book shut and walked over to her little sister. She lipped behind her and took her hand._

_Their mother stood, almost dropping her embroidery hoop to the grass. "Azkadellia," she called. "This is DG's lesson."_

_Azkadellia ignored her mother and placed her other hand on DG's shoulder. DG could feel the bond between them, could feel it connect to the spark of light behind her heart. Kady's light was always stronger than DG's._

"_It will float," her old sister assured her. "It wants to." She believed every word of it, could feel it in that place behind her heart. "Just concentrate, Dot."_

_She did as she was told, closed her eyes, and willed the doll to move. When she felt it leave her palm, her eyes snapped open. The doll was whirling before them like a twister._

"_I did it!" she exclaimed, overjoyed. It was the first time she had ever done any of the things Toto tried to teach her._

"_You did it," Kady confirmed, happily._

_Toto himself sported a satisfied smile and, after a guilty glance at the queen, exclaimed quietly, "Yes!"_

_Now, DG thought, she would always be able to do these things. Because she knew where the light came from. Thanks to her sister._

DeeDee snapped back to the present. "Toto!" she said. "You were our tutor."

He smiled. "Before you were sent over to the Other Side, your mother put a spell on all of your memories incase you were ever taken into the wrong hands."

"Yes, I'm aware," she said, dryly. Her distrust of him did not evaporate like magic, but now she understood it. She had never trusted him. He had never given her a reason to, always holding back his knowledge when he should have been guiding her. But he had known her mother and he was not lying about that.

"Well, she sent me now to help you reawaken the memories you're going to need to find the Gray Gale and the Emerald of the Eclipse."

He knew things she, herself, had only just learned. "How did she send you if she's in Azkadellia's prison somewhere?"

"She came to me in a dream," he said, as though it were a perfectly reasonable explanation. Though, since she, herself, had been called to the O.Z. by a dream, she supposed it was reasonable. "But she's growing weaker and weaker. There's no time to waste."

The others looked to her and, for once, she wished Cain or Glitch would take this decision from her hands. She did not trust this man, but he was probably the only one who could help her unlock her memories. She sighed.

"The Mystic Man said we should head south," she told them all.

"Then, that's exactly what we should do," Glitch told her. "Don't you think, Cain?"

The blonde nodded. Glitch glanced around himself. Then, not finding what he wanted, he licked a finger and held it up as though testing the wind. _South_, he mouthed, pointing ahead of himself and started to walk that way. Cain caught him by the lapel of his coat and hooked a thumb over his own shoulder, mouthing _That way_. He patted the other man's shoulder. Glitch nodded and continued in that direction.

"Yes, that's what I meant," he said, quietly. As DeeDee was standing next to Cain, he had to pass her. He caught her hand as he went and she followed after him, releasing Cain's had, which she had forgotten she was holding.

"Unfortunately," Cain said. "The only road south leads through the fields of the papay."

"Papay," Raw whispered, growling unhappily.

"Fuck beans," DeeDee moaned. She heard Cain chuckle as he followed.


	16. On the Road Again

**A little walkin'. a little talkin' and little magic. it's all good.**

**PS: throws a bootie at you**

The suns were high in the sky now and DeeDee was so tired of walking, she made herself a promise that if she made it out of this in one piece, she would resign herself to a Rascal for at least a year. Holding Glitch's hand as she went had become second nature, just the normal thing to do. She barely even thought about it now, beyond that it was still nice. Cain walked at her other side, so close he might as well have been holding her hand; his coat sleeve brushed her arm with every step. Raw drifted about as they went, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind. He seemed simply caught up in the joy of being free of the dark cell. Toto trailed a few paces behind, probably sensing that he was an unwelcome, but necessary addition to their group.

Occasionally, Dee glanced over her shoulder at him, as though he might shift into a dragon and swallow them all up. She wished she could be sure of his intentions. She might have asked Raw to read him. He was a Viewer after all. That was before today, though. Before Lylo.

"It's total luck that he's alive. An inch either way and… boy, no more Cain," Glitch was saying. So, Zero hadn't been bluffing. He'd actually shot the tin man. She shuddered and had to look over at him to reassure herself that he was, indeed, alive. "And the fall… and the _water!_"

Glitch had started out the story backwards. Leading from how they got into the tower back to how he had awakened on the marble floor in the great hall of the ice palace. She had smiled over his description of his martial arts prowess. Had Cain not nodded in confirmation she never would have believed it. Glitch was full of surprises. The man might seem bumbling and useless, but when it hit the fan, he was sharp as a tack. Even if he glitched shortly afterwards.

A thought occurred to her and she grinned wickedly. "Hypothermia, huh?" she commented. Glitch nodded enthusiastically.

"He was bluer than you!" he exclaimed. "Cold like ice!"

"Did you warm him up the same way you did me, Glitch?" she asked, innocently. Her question had an immediate and gratifying effect. Glitch turned beet red from collar to zipper and began to laugh.

"Hell!" This was a gruff mutter from the tall blonde beside her. He scowled at the ground ahead of himself, his ears flushed a bright pink.

"DeeDee!" Glitch said, admonishingly.

"I don't hear a 'no'," she pushed, digging the barb a little deeper under their respective skins. He hook his head, still laughing.

"You're too young to talk like that, kid," Cain grumbled. She snorted.

"Do you even know how old I am?" she asked.

"Twenty," he said. It was a close guess.

"Twenty-_four_," she corrected. All four of the males she traveled with began to chuckle. It were as though she were a five year-old insisting she were five and a _half_. "What?"

Glitch patted the back of the hand he held with his free one. "People age a little different in the O.Z. than on the other side, DeeDee," he explained, grinning. She looked at him expectantly and he expounded. "I, myself, have eighty-seven annuals."

She was dumb struck. "No way," she denied, incredulously. He nodded. Raw turned and smiled gently at her from his place a few yards ahead.

"Raw sixty," he told her. _Jeez-ass!_

She turned to Cain, who seemed to anticipate her question and smirked. "Kid, you don't even want to know."

She did, though. She really did want to know. However, now was not the time to press the issue, as they had just entered the "fun for the whole family" fields of the papay. They were hushed for a while, from the oppressive air about the place.

"It's not really a 'field', is it?" Glitch babbled to no one. "It's more of an orchard than anyth-"

A screech, like nails on a chalkboard brought her heart to a dead stop.

"That can't be good," Glitch said. _Not good at all._

"Hunter parties are around," Cain told them, scanning the area. "Stay sharp."

She did the same, looking about for any signs of movement. She took in all the bleak grayness, dead trees, dead grass.

"I can't always have been like this," she whispered to herself.

"No," Cain confirmed. "This use to be some of the most fertile land in the O.Z.. Orchards. Nurseries."

"What happened to it?" she asked, thought already had an inkling of the answer.

"About fifteen annuals ago, all the crops died. Which then caused a great famine," he said, solemnly. Her stomach hurt. _I shouldn't have asked._

"Don't need three guesses to know who's responsible," she said.

"Yeah."

"You'd think someone would have helped them with their crops," Glitch piped up, eyes going glassy. "Maybe engineered a doohickey.. With a couple of… thingies…"

"Glitch, where are we going?"

"Right," the headcase said. "South."

DeeDee stared at Cain for a moment, for it had been _he_ who had asked the question and brought Glitch back to the present. At that moment, the action was possibly the sweetest thing she had ever seen. She could kiss Cain for being so sweet. She felt herself flush and looked quickly away, for the thought that Cain was sweet and should be kissed brought her thoughts to the actual act of kissing him. Would he be sweet? Warmth coiled low in her belly and her heart fluttered in her chest. She swallowed, much harder than was strictly necessary. Creeping through the fields of the papay was _not_ the time or place to be thinking about such things.

"Got to love a good orchard," Glitch said, brightly. "Full of succulent fruit for all the people to eat. Free, too, if you're a good fence-climber. Mind you, those scare crows kind of freak me out!"

"Papay once peaceful," Raw told her. Glitch snorted.

"Yeah? Well, not the only peace they're interested in is a piece of us!"

"Were farmers," the Viewer continued. "Now hunters."

"No wonder they attack everything. They're desperate. No food," DeeDee reasoned aloud. Unfortunately, pitying the creatures would not keep them from trying to eat her face off. Another of those piercing shrieks. Closer this time. Cain pulled everyone to a stop.

"Shh," he silenced them all. "Runner scouts. They're signaling to the others."

_Signaling what?_ She saw movement out of the corner of her eye. For an instant she thought the trees had come alive.

"Run!" she heard herself scream. She was moving before she had properly processed what happened. She knew the others ran with her, but all she could see in her mind was the cliff, all she could feel was the fall. Then they skidded to a halt. Apparently, the papay's remembered, too, for they had called in their troops and had the party completely surrounded. Cain took aim and pulled the trigger, but his revolver only clicked feebly.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" DeeDee didn't know if she said it out loud or only in her head. Cain was lowering his weapon now, talking to the papays as though to a dog.

"Good boys. Good boys."

Glitch pushed her behind himself, as if to shield her. As if the papays would stop once they finished with him. He drew a whimpering breath. "Almost dinner time."

The papays were closing in. "DG," Toto was suddenly whispering in her ear. "Use your gift."

"To do what? Make them _spin_?" she hissed.

"Focus, DG. You've got it in you, come on."

"I don't know _how_!" She'd been telling him that for years and all she ever got back was-

"Just, focus."

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Or tried to. The papay's shrieked and clawed at the ground. She could feel the fear coming off Glitch like waves of ice. And Toto in her ear. How she hated the man. Always making demands, never giving information.

"It's not working!" she growled at him. "It never works!"

She backed away, trying to free herself from his endless orders. She bumped into the tree they were standing in front of. Her hands reflexively pressed themselves to the bark and she was pulled into it. Not physically, but mentally. Her mind slipped into the cold, dead wood and down into the darkness of the roots. She could feel how cold, how dead the tree was. How filled with sorrow that it was no longer a living, growing thing. She cried for it, cried with it. She wanted it to be whole again. If she could only give it some of her warmth… Yes, that was it. Her warmth flowed into the tree, healing it. She felt joy; her own for her part and the tree's for simply being alive.

Glitch touched her cheek gently, bringing her back to herself.

"Look," he breathed. She did. It was beautiful. Leaves of shining greens and golds, large sumptuous looking fruits sprouting all over. She felt humbled by it.

"That is one heck of a defense, kid," Cain half-whispered.

"Good, DeeDee!" Raw told her, with a pat. She smiled through tears. _Did I really do that?_

"Let's get out of here," Cain said then. He bowed to the papay, removing his had in deference. "Thank you."

She allowed herself to be pulled away, but did not look away from the tree until it was blocked from view. They walked on and on, far away from the fields of the papay. The third time DeeDee stumbled out of exhaustion, Cain insisted they stop for the night. She had refused the two previous times, but now she had no strength left to argue. They could not have a fire, as the smoke might draw the attention of those pursuing them. It was warm and balmy, though, as they were getting further and further south. DeeDee still curled up against Glitch, anyway, on the soft leaf litter of the forest floor. The sound of his heartbeat lulled her quickly to sleep.

**xxxxxxxxx.**

DG was eight and very frightened. She ran across the wide lawn towards where her mother sat in her favorite place, a gazebo swing by the water. She tripped and fell, dirtying her skirt, but didn't care. She rushed to her mother, crying, nearly hysterical.

"DG, what's wrong?" her mother asked, worried eyes scanning the property.

"Kady!" the little girl wailed, pitifully. "She fell! And I let go!"

The Queen's face was drawn with fear for a moment, until she saw her elder daughter strolling from the woods calmly, unharmed. She wiped DG's cheeks.

"Oh, what are you talking about?" she said, with mild impatience. "There's Azkadellia, right there."

DG looked at her sister, coming closer, and was more afraid than before. Kady's eyes were not her own.

**xxxxxxxxxx.**

Azkadellia jolted awake in her bedchamber, high in the tower. She took a few gasping breaths, trying to calm herself after the nightmare. Had it been a nightmare? She rose from her bed, touching her face as though unsure it were her own. Hissing voices whispered beyond her sight. She went to the mirror and peered at her reflection. _I know you…WITCH!_

**xxxxxxxxxxxx.**

DeeDee jolted awake to find herself laying on the forest floor, her head in Glitch's lap, her friends watching her intently, looks of concern all around.

"You okay?" Cain asked. She nodded.

"It looked like you were having a nightmare," Glitch said from above.

"I was," she admitted.

"DeeDee dream of Azkadellia?" Raw asked. She wondered if it hurt him to pick up thoughts from the air, as it had hurt Lylo to take them from her mind.

"Yes." Glitch was running his fingers through her hair soothingly. She closed her eyes and enjoyed it for a moment. "She told me we were friends, once, and I didn't believe her. How could I? But, now, I'm not so sure."

She said the last with a glance at Toto. But instead of offering any useful information he merely said, "Maybe, your dream's trying to tell you something."

She wanted to say something sarcastic, but he was right. The dream was trying to tell her something. As usual, she had no idea what. She sighed and began to reason the dream aloud, hoping the others might have some insight where she lacked.

"I was scared. Something bad happened, but I don't know what. I ran to her, my mother. She was in a swing… in a special place. By a lake."

"Well, there's about a hundred lakes just south of here," Cain told her. She bit her tongue.

"Oh, well, that narrows it down," she huffed. Raw knelt by her.

"DeeDee know which lake," he told her, looking her in the eye. _If only._

"No, I don't."

"You do, DeeDee," Glitch insisted gently, but firmly. "Because you were there before, as a little girl. Try." He gave her shoulder a squeeze of encouragement. "What was it like?"

She closed her eyes and tried to see the lake again in her mind. The view was hazy at best. "It was," she paused, trying to come up with anything that could be of use. But only one word came to mind, and she finished lamely, "Magical."

Cain got to his feet. "Well, to get to lake country, we have to cut across the crack in the O.Z.." He held a hand out and pulled her to her feet. "This ain't gonna be easy," he warned.

"When has it ever?" she challenged. He gave her a half smile in response.


	17. Revelations

**Here's another big one for you all. We learn all KINDS of things in this chappy.**

**PS: did you know it takes three reviews to equal one baby tear? that's a free fact. take that home. enjoy it.**

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"Can't we rest?" Glitch whined like a child. "I'm tired."

"No time," Toto said. DeeDee wanted to hit him with a stick. "We have to get to Finaqua."

_Finaqua?_ Yet another O.Z. term she didn't know. She was not about to ask Toto for an explanation, though. She wouldn't ask him for anything if she could help it. He just rubbed her the wrong way.

Glitch suddenly stooped to the ground. He picked up something that looked like he should have left it on the ground. He sniffed it and was repulsed.

"Ew!"

DeeDee rolled her eyes. Wasn't that just like a guy? Sniffing strange objects you just _knew_ would be stank. "Serves you right," she admonished, tugging him back to a standing position. He sighed wistfully, eyes closed.

"I'd give my last synapse for a juicy apple," he mused. DeeDee blinked.

"Apple?" she took the withered thing from him and held it in her hand.

"What is it?" Toto asked. She was too distracted to be annoyed.

"Something Azkadellia said," she answered. She could feel that pushing in her mind again, as the memory pulled her under. _Glitch, don't let go._

_DG had just turned eight. She rubbed the shiny, red apple on her frock and took a big bite. The sweetness tickled her tongue. Kady was just catching up, holding her apron like a pouch, more apples within._

"_Clever how you tricked that old tree to throw fruit at us," she complimented, with a laugh. DG smiled widely, pleased at her sister's praise. Often the only she received._

"_I heard tell of it once," she explained. "In a story from the past."_

"_We should get back before mother realizes we're gone or else we'll be history, too," the elder sister said. "We are not supposed to be out here alone."_

_DG sighed. Kady often worried about displeasing their mother. DG never worried, for it seemed that all she did was displease the Queen._

"_She says," Kady continued. "There are wild animals in the forest."_

_DG was about to roll her eyes when she saw the huge brown shape through the trees ahead of them. She gulped._

"_Did she say what kinds of animals?" she asked. Kady strolled over to her._

"_Oh, lions and tigers and…" she trailed off, dropping her fruit as she saw the brown furry beast. The thing heard them drop and turned to the girls with a menacing growl._

"_Oh my!" DG gasped, stepping back into her sister. Kady took hold of her hand, gripping it tightly. The bear began to charge them. It was huge, its eyes dull with pure animal aggression. "Kady!"_

_Azkadellia held her ground. "Just hold my hand, Dot!" she commanded. "Nothing can hurt us if we stay together!"_

_DG believed her, as she always did. For Azkadellia knew things DG was not permitted to know. She felt the bond, the touch behind her heart. Nothing could hurt them. Not this bear. Nothing._

_As if it sense a power greater than itself, the bear reared up on its hind legs. It was so tall, DG thought it might blot out the suns. It roared and she could feel it shake her right to her shoes. It dropped back to all fours and then it was gone. As though it had never been there at all._

_She turned to her sister and Kady smiled and laughed. DG laughed with her._

DeeDee came back to herself more confused than before. "Azkadellia," she whispered. "What happened to you?"

"Hey, kiddo," Cain called. His voice carried a note of questioning. "Are you coming?"

She shook her head, wondering how long she had been standing there in a daze. "Yeah." She dropped the apple and she and Glitch went to catch up with Cain and Raw.

She heard the waterfall before she ever saw the mist billowing up from the massive gorge Cain referred to as "the crack in the O.Z.". She had to hold on to Glitch with both hands to keep from succumbing to vertigo looking over the edge.

"They won't be putting a zipper on that gaper," he said in awe.

"Long Coats everywhere!" Raw grumbled. It was true. She could see them from their high vantage point. _Cockroaches_.

"Yeah, we're not getting passed them in broad daylight," Cain lamented.

"The eclipse is almost upon us. We don't have any time to waste," Toto said. Cain sighed with the same annoyance DeeDee was feeling.

"Look, quick and dead might be okay with you, dogman," he told Toto. "But I'll take slow and breathin' any time. Even then, we're gonna need some help."

"Cabin," Raw said, pointing off into the woods. DeeDee could just make out the roof of a cabin, blue smoke rising from its chimney. _Blue?_ Cain seemed to find this something to be happy about. If she didn't know better, DeeDee would have sworn he smiled.

"Probably full of Long Coats," Glitch said, uncharacteristically pessimistic. Or realistic, she corrected.

"No," Cain contradicted. "Look at the smoke."

"Yeah, so they lit a fire," Glitch shot back. "Long Coats get cold, too."

Cain smirked at him. "It's blue," he said, obviously knowing something the headcase did not. "Come on."

He led the way towards the small cabin.

"When we get there, let me do the talking," he ordered as they got closer. He turned to look at Dee. "That means you, kid."

Her mouth fell open in indignation, but she said nothing. She did have a habit of letting her tongue run away with her temper, both of them leading her into hot water.

When they reached it, he did not pause to look around, nor did he exhibit any of his usual, cautious behavior. He marched them all straight towards the front door. When she heard the rifle cock, DeeDee knew that was a mistake.

A man who looked to be in his late forties (though, really, in the O.Z., who knew _how old_ he really was) edged around the corner of the cabin, his rifle trained on Cain.

"State your business," he demanded. Cain held up both hands in submission.

"We mean you know harm," he told the man, calmly. "We are travelers of the realms, seeking a warm meal and a cold cup of grog."

Dee had to physically slap a hand over her mouth to keep from commenting on that statement. _What the fu- GROG, Cain?! What are you a pirate?_

A woman, presumably the man's wife, edged her way around the other side of the cabin, training her gun on the girl. Glitch slipped in front of her. She would kill that woman if she shot Glitch. Not to mention the man if he shot Cain. If anyone was holding a gun on Raw and shot him, she'd take them out, too. If anyone shot Toto, she might give them a cookie.

"Food is scarce this time of year," the man told them. "And the grog has long since been seized."

_Why is the grog always gone?_ Christ, she had to get ahold of herself. Maybe the stress of it all was making her crack.

"Then we will leave you in peace," Cain told the couple. "May your hearth be warm."

"And your smoke be blue," the man seemed to relax all at once, as did Cain. "Come in, quickly."

The wife did not seem so trusting and still held her rifle at the ready as they all entered the home.

"Thank you for your help," Cain said once they were inside. The man was putting down his rifle and removing his leather apron by the hearth.

"I'm Ralph," he introduced himself. He pointed to the woman who was bolting the door. "That's my wife, Lorraine."

She leveled her gun on Cain from less than two feet away. "Put your gun on the table," she ordered.

"They're friends, Lorraine," Ralph admonished. She was unconvinced.

"No such thing anymore," she told her husband. DeeDee scowled at her. _Ray of sunshine, that one._

"It's okay," Cain assured the rest and laid his pistol on the table. _No bullets, anyway._ "We just need shelter, until it's safe to cross."

"It's never safe," Ralph said. "But the cover of night will help. Until then sit, rest."

He unbolted the door and went out, closing it behind. Lorraine stayed behind, watching them all like a hawk. The table was large enough for all of them to sit around it, with a few chairs still unoccupied. Glitch sat to one side of her, Cain to the other. An uncomfortable silence followed. DeeDee picked at her fingernails for a few moments before she realized her hands were filthy. It occurred to her that the rest of her couldn't be in much better shape, running around the woods and being stuck in prison cells.

"Excuse me, Lorraine?" she asked, as politely as she could. The woman looked at her. "Is there someplace I could go to clean up a bit?"

For a moment Ralph's wife looked surprised, as though she had not noticed until that moment how much of a mess the girl had been. DeeDee did her best to look just as young as everyone thought her to be.

"There's a tub in the back room," she said, pointing through a door that lead to the kitchen. "You can wash up back there. Can't do much about your clothes, I'm afraid."

That was fine with Dee. She went through the kitchen and found a door leading off to one side. Lorraine followed. The room was barely big enough for two people to stand side by side with the brass tub within. The woman pointed at the water pump that fed the tub.

"Water's cold but I'll have my son fetch a bucket and heat some up for you," she said, her voice having lost most of is hard edge. DeeDee momentarily considered telling her that the cold water would be fine, but the promise of a hot bath was too temping to refuse. She thanked Lorraine and set to pumping water into the tub.

As she worked the handle, DeeDee was reminded that an old-fashioned hand pump like this one stood in the porch yard of Cain's home. She stopped pumping. Father, mother, son - in a remote cabin. What kinds of thoughts and memories must be whirling around the tin man's head. Poor Cain. She must have stood there and thought about this for a long time, for there came a knock at the door that turned out the be Ralph and Lorraine's boy with the hot water. He looked almost the same age as Cain's son. _My God._ Oh, Cain.

One the tub was filled with steaming, wonderful water, DeeDee disrobed and climbed in. Oh, it was heaven. The water came right up to her shoulders if she scooted down a bit. She scrubbed the dirt from her skin, knowing full well it would just get dirty again, but not caring one little bit. She lather, rinse, repeated her hair and finally just lay back in the hot, hot water and relaxed.

Someone knocked at the door, making her jump.

"Yes?" she called, finding it odd the way her teeth clacked together. The door opened, just a crack.

"You okay, kid?" Cain called tentatively.

"Yeah, why?" She asked. Why indeed. Why was she so cold?

"You've been in there for over an hour," he told her.

"Oh!" she must have fallen asleep. Dangerous thing to do in a tub of water. "I'll be out in a minute."

He closed the door and she quickly got out of the tub. Her fingers and toes were all pruney and white. Yuck. She pulled the drain, letting the cloudy, now cold water run out and pulled her clothes on.

Everyone was sitting down to a meal at the table when she finally made her appearance. She took her seat between Glitch and Cain, the former of which began piling food onto her plate. She shot a glance at Cain from under her lashes. He seemed to be okay; not upset, but you never really could tell with the tin man what was going on inside that tin noggin.

"What news from the Resistance in the east?" Ralph inquired of Cain. He half chuckled.

"I was hoping you'd tell us," the blonde responded.

"Do you know anything about a machine that Azkadellia is building?" Dee asked. Ralph shrugged and shook his head.

"Only rumors," he said, apologetically. Then, expounded. "We helped a captain from the lowlands. All he said was that Azkadellia was pushing the miners and the metalworkers until they dropped."

"What mine?" This from Cain.

"Some mine in the Black Mountains," Ralph told him.

"Mauritanium," Glitch piped up. "Uh, big M, little t; number 216 in the Ozium Periodic Table." He smiled absently at Raw and tilted his head to one side with a little laugh. "School days. I remember a lovely young lass named Leona, who-"

"Glitch!" DeeDee cut in. He looked at her. "Mauritanium? What's it for?"

His brow furrowed in thought and then realization. His voice was grim when he spoke again. "Besides its strength, mauritanium is valued for its ability to conduct magical energy."

"So, if she gets her claws on the emerald, she can focus it's power however she wants," DeeDee said, in understanding.

"Not if we get to it first," Toto said. She supposed he meant to sound optimistic and encouraging, but it only came off as opportunistic and shady.

"So, it's a weapon," Cain thought out loud.

"No, it's a Sunseeder," Glitch contradicted him, sounding certain.

"What's a Sunseeder?" Dee asked. The look of understanding seeped out of the headcase's eyes and he grinned foolishly.

"I dunno, but it sounds cool," he laughed. He caught on another thought and was sobered. "No, wait. I invented it."

"What's it used for?" she asked. He tried to think, she could see him try, but it was to no avail.

"I can't remember," he said, unhappily. "I can't remember."

She patted his hand. "Glitch," she began, fully intending to tell him it was alright.

"We don't have time to wait for him to remember," Cain said. Before she could ask what he intended, the tin man turned to Raw. "Can you find it?"

DeeDee sprang from her chair. "No!" she said loudly. They turned to her. "Don't do this, Raw. I saw what it did to Lylo."

Raw's eyes filled with understanding. He patted her arm reassuringly. Cain took Glitch by the arm and gently guided him into a more comfortable chair by the fire. A mirror hung over the mantle. Raw went to stand behind Glitch.

"We don't need to know what it does," DeeDee insisted. "If we get the emerald, she wont be able to use it!"

"It's alright, DeeDee" Glitch said nervously, forcing a weak smile. She dropped to her knees beside him and took his hand, holding it between both her own. Raw gave her one of those tender looks of his and laid his hand on top of Glitch's skull . Both immediately tensed up in what looked like pain and DeeDee's heart lurched. Raw's face began to calm, but Glitch's did not. He squeezed her hand painfully, but she did not try to pull away.

In the mirror, the colors swirled and solidified. "Dark day," Raw intoned. The mirror showed poor Glitch, terrified, frantic, running around the woods. He looked like he might be screaming, but no sound came. Then, everything stopped and the Queen was sitting by a fog shrouded lake, looking out over the water. Her hair was silvery gray by this time and she looked both sad and tired. Glitch, looking much the way he had in his wanted poster approached her and went down on one knee at her side.

"Your majesty, I bring bad news," he said solemnly. "The Princess, Azkadellia has seized Central City."

"Have our men pull back," The Queen commanded, listlessly. "To set up positions in the south."

Glitch began to speak, but she cut in sharply, "What?"

"The fourth brigade has fallen," he told her. "General Lion has defected."

This caught the Queens attention. She turned to her advisor in shock. "He was our most loyal friend."

"I'm so sorry," Glitch said. "There is no law other than Azkadellia's." His expression turned almost mischievous. "She tried to steal the plans for the Sunseeder," he said. "But I was able to destroy the blueprints."

The Queen laid her hand on his arm. "She'll come after you, Ambrose."

_Ambrose?_ The name was familiar, very familiar. DeeDee knew she should be able to place it, but could not.

_DeeDee-G? What are you doing in my head?_ Glitch's voice echoed in her mind. Raw must have pulled her in with them. It was the only explanation. She felt warmth and welcome exude from Glitch's mind. _Hey, I want to show you something!_

Then next thing she knew, DeeDee was seeing another vision, this one for her eyes alone. This was not Glitch's memory, this was Ambrose's and she saw it as if through his eyes.

_Two little princesses dancing in a row,_

_Spinning fast and freely on their little toes._

_Where the light will take them, no one ever knows._

_Two little princesses dancing in a row._

"_Not 'where the light', Princess. 'Whither life'," Ambrose corrected, gently, smiling. And they were dancing, the two princesses; twirling about as if caught up in the magic of the song._

"_Whither? What's whither?" Azkadellia asked._

"_To die!" Dorothy said, with an incongruous grin, happy to show off her knowledge. She was quite bright for a six year old. Ambrose chuckled._

"_That's a different word, Princess."_

"_Princess, princess," Dorothy said, in sing-song. "Me-cess? She-cess? Who-cess?"_

"_You-cess!" Azkadellia exclaimed, both girls giggling._

"_Two-cess!"_

"_You sillies," the advisor accused affectionately. He was quite enjoying himself, standing here in the outer hall, entertaining the two young princesses. It was preferably to standing like a vase as everyone around him dance. He had simply left the ball room for a moment to get some air and quite literally stumbled upon the two girls, far to young to attend the festivities, sneaking peaks through the open door. The younger, Dorothy, had immediately insisted he dance with her and so he had. She was a princess, after all._

"_What's it _mean_, Ambrose?" Dorothy demanded, keen as always to gather a new word for her collection. Ambrose liked to think that it was he, himself, who had instilled this love of words in her. One could create anything, if one only had the right words._

"_Whither, in this case, means 'where'," he instructed. Azkadellia wrinkled her nose._

"_Why not just say 'where' then?"_

_Ambrose opened his mouth to speak and found he was quite unsure how to explain to the young girl. Fortunately, Dorothy was there with a simple, child-like answer that was far more effective than any he could have devised._

"_Because it _sounds_ better, Kady!" she insisted. "And it's got the right number of syllalils."_

"_Syllables," the man corrected, beaming at his young charge. She was always remarkable, but on occasion she truly shocked him._

"_Yes!" the imp agreed. Azkadellia caught Ambrose by the fingers of one hand._

"_Again!" she demanded. Ambrose held his hand out, twirling her under his fingers like a ballerina._

"_Two little princesses dancing in a row," he sang softly. "Spinning fast and freely on their little toes. Whither life will take them, no one ever knows." The elder princess released him and spun away on her own. "Two little princesses dancing in a row."_

"_If there are only two, how can they be in a row?" she asked, for silliness' sake. Dorothy reached for Ambrose's hand next. He spun her as well, singing the line again._

"_Spinning fast and freely on their little toes. Whither life will take them no one ever knows."_

"_Whither?" asked Azkadellia, looking around as if to find the answer. Dorothy giggled._

"_Hither!" she exclaimed, pointing as she spun. "And thither!"_

_Ambrose could not help but laugh at their antics. "Hither and yon."_

_Dorothy stopped spinning and looked up at him. "Hither and yooooooon!" she said, trailing the word out and dramatically stretching her arms in a yawn. The fell to the ground and feigned sleep._

DeeDee snapped back to the present. Ambrose was still kneeling by her mother's side, so it seemed no time had passed. She had the oddest sense of mental whiplash.

"Is there nothing you can do, Majesty?" he asked the Queen. She shook her head sadly.

"It's too late," she whispered. "The darkness is too deeply rooted in her."

"But your light," Ambrose insisted. "You are the most powerful being in all of the O.Z.."

"Was, old friend," she said, sounding more tired as each moment passed. "I gave my power and my light to save someone very special… my angel."

Ambrose looked alarmed and stood. Azkadellia strode into the scene. "Show some respect," he commanded. And was ignored.

"The Queen's reign ends today," the sorceress said, sounding rather pleased with herself. The Queen stood.

"Do you have any idea what you are doing?" she asked her daughter. Azkadellia smiled.

"I do. You need a long rest, Mother," she said. Then to her guards. "Take her away. Take him to the alchemist. If you won't tell me what you know," she said to Ambrose, reprovingly. "I guess I'll just have to reach in and take it myself."

There was a flash and now Ambrose was strapped down to a table, looking about fearfully.

"Remove the brain slowly," the alchemist said. Ambrose pleaded with him.

"No. Please don't. Don't do this." He was ignored again. "Please, it won't-it won't work."

"Count back from one hundred," was all the alchemist said. "Ninety-nine."

"Please, don't," Ambrose continued, but he was fading fast as the alchemist counted down. By ninety-six he was out.

Raw released the mirror, snapping everyone back to the man sitting, shuddering, in the chair before them. It took Glitch a moment to recover. His eyes popped wide and he gave a nervous laugh.

"Oh my! The name's Glitch. Have we…" he trailed off, coming back to himself. His eye settled on DeeDee. "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah," she told him, lying. "I'm fine."

His face fell and he looked anxiously from one to the next. "What?" he demanded. She could feel him starting to shake. "Was my machine so bad?"

All that, and they still didn't know what the machine did. But they knew who and what Glitch was. Cain stepped forward, looking so sincere it bordered on pained. "No," he assured the trembling man. "But whatever it is, you sure sacrificed a lot to stop Azkadellia."

DeeDee pushed to her feet and wrapped her arms around the poor, abused man, holding him tightly. "That's why she had to go straight for the source."

Glitch leaned into her embrace and sighed. "Oh, I guess it wasn't the biggest sacrifice ever made for science."

"I couldn't think of a bigger one," DeeDee told him. No one contradicted her. Toto picked that moment to intrude.

"The time to go, is now," he told them. "Full dark and the moons have yet to rise."

DeeDee wanted to punch him. She probably would have had she not been suddenly overwhelmed by emotion at what she had seen. Too much. Like Milltown. Too much. She slipped away from Glitch and the others and walked out the cabin door. The night air was cool. She could see the stars, but they provided little light. Perhaps she could lose herself in the darkness.

"You okay?" Apparently, she couldn't lose herself anywhere with the tin man around. She sniffled back tears she hadn't realized she was shedding.

"Yeah, you know. Just…" she tried to brush it off, but could not, as he placed a warm, comforting hand on the middle of her back. "My mother, Azkadellia, Glitch… I feel like it's my fault, but I don't know why. She gave up her power to save me and that's how Azkadellia was able to take over. I don't…" She sighed. "I don't know."

"You know, kiddo," Cain said, in that quiet, comforting voice. "There are some things in this life that are just beyond our control. But we need you."

She bowed her head. It sucked to be needed. If people depend on you, you can't just give up. He grasped her arm and turned her towards him, holding her by the shoulders. She wouldn't look at him until he nudged her chin up with his knuckle. Even in the dark, those blue eyes shone.

"You gotta let it go," he told her. She nodded, but knew she couldn't. She was never the type for letting things go. She wiped her face and straightened her shoulders. "Come on," he said, steering her towards the others. His eyes caught on something sitting on the porch railing behind her and widened. He lunged for it and snatched up a small, lead horse. "Where did you get this?"

"We should go," Ralph said.

"Where did you get this," Cain demanded again, firmly.

"A resistance fighter made it for my son," the man said. "He came through a few months back. He made it with his mother."

Cain removed a nearly identical figure from his pocket. The one with the bullet, the one that had saved his life.

Ralph continued. "I think their names were-"

"Jeb. And Adora," Cain finished for him. His eyes wide with wonder. "My family. They really are alive."


	18. Tin Can Revisited

**Oh... poor Cain. sigh**

**PS: poor babies... slurp**

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Cain's family was alive. DeeDee had never really truly thought they were dead. She had simply not allowed herself to think about their fate beyond what happened in the holograph. She thought about Cain, how Cain was coping, how he must think of them often. But she had never really thought about them, themselves. Did that make her a bad person? No.

What made her a bad person was the hollowness in her stomach. Somehow she could not see her life moving forward without the three others revolving around her like satellites; Cain, and Glitch, and Raw. She didn't like thinking that, once they stopped Azkadellia, they would each go back to their own lives. And she would be alone in this strange land.

She brushed the thought aside. Despite the unfavorable comparison in age between Earth and the O.Z., she was not a child. She could take care of herself. Her mother, while loved, was never what one could call a strong support base. DeeDee had been alone her whole life. Or so she had thought. Once she had a family. Her memories seemed to indicate there had been something a bit off in her relationship with the Queen, but Azkadellia had loved her once. And looking about her now, the three males she traveled with, they had become a sort of family. Hadn't they? Or was it all in her head?

"You're a lot like her, you know," Glitch told her. "She wasn't all ermine robes and thees and thous. She started off just like you. Feisty! But fair."

That brought a small smile to her face. Glitch cared about her, that much was obvious. From the memory he'd shown her, perhaps he always had to some extent. But now he was a headcase and she couldn't really trust that things were real. Once he got his brain back, things would change. Things always changed.

"I don't even know her name," she mused. He gave a short laugh.

"Oh, that's easy. Her name was Queen…" he trailed off, giving her an apologetic look as the thought slipped away. She gave his hand a squeeze.

"It's okay. I'll found out when we save her," she told him with more confidence than she felt. He stopped walking then, and took her hand between both of his and looked into her eyes.

"But she was happy to make the sacrifices she thought were right," he told her meaningfully. He added with a soft smile. "We should all love someone that much."

She tore her gaze from his. He was looking at her that way, as if he saw her, could really see her. It was terrifying and she ran from it in her mind.

"Come on." He dropped their joined hands to his side again and started off after the others. She could hear the waterfall again and felt a familiar thrill of fear and panic, and her stomach and heart fell in into the vicinity of her toes.

"Quickly! Help me with this," Ralph called in the darkness ahead. He began to pull away the branches of what DeeDee had thought was a tree. "We try to keep it hidden as best we can."

"What is it?" she asked. It was a scaffolding of some kind. She did not have a good feeling about this.

"Your family crossed this same line, friend," Ralph told Cain. _Line?_ Ralph was telling Cain where Jeb and Adora were headed, but all she could think was, _Fuck me, it's a zip line! _

"I don't imagine anyone here saw Cliffhanger?" she muttered to herself. Glitch must have felt her start shaking, for he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

"It'll be okay," he assured her. "I'll go first!"

He climbed to the top of the scaffold and looped the zip line's harness belt around himself. Cain motioned Raw and herself ahead, and they climbed up to join the headcase. Toto shifted into a dog again, and DeeDee was glad she did not have to carry him. She might drop him. On accident of course. Glitch took hold of the hand rails and hesitated. He turned a tremulous smile on her.

"Did I ever tell you I was afraid of heights?" he asked, voice shaky as she felt. So much for his cavalier attitude.

"You were hanging from the ceiling when I found you," she reminded him. Raw gave him a shove and he swung out, shooting down the line.

"Involuntarily!" he wailed.

Raw went next, without even a note of pause._ Furry bastard,_ a jealous little voice inside called. Oh, to not worry about falling billions of feet to your death! Cain joined her on the platform, shifter tucked under one arm. He put the mutt down and helped her into the harness. Her hands shook enough that it was not arbitrary assistance. He stood behind her, both hands on her shoulders.

"You can do this, kid," he leaned close to say in her ear.

"That's easy for you to say," she shot back. He shoved her, then, and she bit off the scream that tried to escape her throat. She zoomed away through the woods and out over the massive canyon. She squeezed her eyes shut and whispered the _Two Little Princesses _song. She had done this during times of great fear or stress all her life. But, somewhere along the line, the song had morphed into a _Ten Little Monkeys_ kind of thing. The constant repetition and order of counting seemed to help soothe her through when things became too much.

"Ten little princesses dancing in a row," she hissed through clenched teeth. She could feel the mist from the waterfall wetting her skin. "Spinning fast and freely on their little toes. One of them got dizzy, fell, and bumped her nose. Nine little princesses dancing in a row."

She had made it to four little princesses when something jolted her to a stop. She gave a screech and flailed her arms. _Oh my God, I'm gonna die!_ A hand clamped over her mouth and an arm across her arms and chest, holding her still.

"DeeDee stop!" Raw commanded. She opened her eyes to find herself wrapped in the restraining embrace of the Viewer, her feet firmly on the ground. She turned within the circle of his arms and wrapped her own around him.

"No more heights!" she demanded. He patted her back soothingly and she could feel him laughing, but was not angry. When they pulled apart, Glitch was staggering slightly and shaking his head. She saw that she stood three feet away from a large tree the end of the zip line was tied to. Raw had caught her before she would have slammed into it. Apparently, Glitch had no such luck. Cain came zooming in and dropped easily to his feet. _Bastard,_ the jealous voice said again.

"You okay?" he asked. Toto, tucked under his arm, looked like he had faired about as well as she had on the trip over. It was hard not to be sympathetic. She tried. Everyone nodded. "Okay, let's go."

It seemed like all she ever did in the O.Z. was run, or walk, from one place to the next. Of course, this was a fairly accurate estimation. Of the four days and nights, she had spent in the land, she had been on the road for… _all_ of them. Had it really only been four days? Time was a hard concept to fathom when so much had happened.

This side of the gorge turned out to be a bit of a marshland. The ground was spongy and moist. She could hear crickets and frogs in an eerie chorus. The sky was slowly turning from inky black, to indigo, to that sheer gray that promised the dawn. They made their way through the trees and out into a large flat clearing. A lazy, muddy stream wound its way back and forth across the land, tall grasses filling in around it. Halfway across the clearing, Cain stopped. DeeDee thought he might have been holding his breath.

"There," he whispered. He was staring at a tree off in the distance, that resembled the White Tree of Gondor. It was the only one around, so it had to be the tree Ralph had told Cain of before the leap. "That's it. That's where my family made their new home."

He seemed frozen in place for a moment. _Go!_ she urged silently. He took off, racing away across the plain, his coat flapping behind. Her heart went with him. _Please, let them be okay._

Behind her, Toto gave a sigh of impatience.

"I really don't think there's time for this," he said. She whirled on him and only Glitch's restraining hands saved the shifter from a bloody nose.

"No one cares what you think!" she growled at him. "So, keep your cakehole shut!"

She pulled away from Glitch and jogged off in Cain's wake.

"Cake-hole?" Glitch puzzled aloud. Then laughed. "Oh! I get it!"

"Adora!" she could hear Cain calling frantically as he crashed through the underbrush. "Jeb!"

Suddenly, his shouts ceased and DeeDee's heart beat faster. _He found them!_ But when she stepped from the brush, it seemed all the blood drained from her. She stopped and glitch bumped into her from behind.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, then was still as he took it what she saw.

Cain was standing near an iron suit, the same kind of iron maiden contraption she had freed him from. He had pulled it open and it was empty, but that did not lessen the horror of it. Who had been locked in _this_ prison; his wife? His son? Could fate truly be so cruel to one small family? Cain saw something beyond the suit and rushed for it, snatching his hat off as he dropped to his knees. A small, wood plank stuck vertically into the ground.

A grave marker.

DeeDee's eyes closed of their own accord as she felt herself rend inside for his loss. When she opened them she found that she was walking towards the kneeling man, and tears were streaming down his face. When she reached his side, Dee placed a hand to his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her waist, the embrace painful on her hips, and pressed his face against her stomach. His whole body shook as he sobbed against her, as he had before. All she could do was hold him close and stroke his shoulders, running her fingers through his short, blonde hair, and let him finally release all that had built up inside.

When it seemed he had no strength to sob, Cain released her and fell back to sit on the damp ground, elbows on knees, head in his hands. She sat beside him, an arm across his shoulders, her free hand resting on one of his arms.

"All this time, I thought she was dead," he told her, voice raw. "I didn't believe Zero, but after last night. I thought she would be here. I thought _they_ would be here. I thought I'd get my life back."

She had no words of comfort, nothing that could make this better. All she could do was _be_ there.

"But she's gone. She's always been gone," he continued, angrily. "I should have protected her."

She took hold of his chin and made him face her. "You're not a God," she admonished. "You're just a man. And you're a good man, which is just about all any of us can hope to be.

"You told me that some things in life are just beyond our control. And it's true. It's not fair, but you're going to have to let _this_ go. The O.Z. may need me, but I need my friends. That includes _you_, Wyatt Cain. I can't do this alone."

He was looking at her as though seeing her for the first time. Perhaps it was true. She didn't think she'd ever been this person before. She was never strong. But he nodded and pushed her hands gently away. He knelt before the grave again and she stood, backing away to give him a moment. He took something from his pocket and lay it on the moss covered mound that was his wife's final resting place, then kissed the marker. He stood, donning his hand, and cleared his throat.

"Lets go."

As they walked away, Dee glanced back, a bit of silver gleaming at her from the grave.


	19. A Cry in the Dark

**OH, the big... dark... secret... DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!!!**

**PS: Baby face... you got the cutest little baby face... awe, don't cry! ... no wait, DO.**

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Near midday they stopped aside a river with a gravelly shore. The water was cool and wonderfully sweet. _Should have asked Ralph for a canteen_. But hindsight is 20/20, after all. Cain stood away from the others. DeeDee knew her little speech had gotten him moving, but she didn't think it had helped much in the healing department. When Raw went to the man, she didn't try to stop him. Perhaps the Viewer, who felt everything so deeply, could do something positive where she had failed. He laid a hand on Cain's shoulder and tensed for a moment, then smiled gently.

"Your son, Jeb, still lives," Raw said. Cain shook his head, denying the very possibility.

"No," he told the beast-man, but Raw insisted.

"He lives to honor you. Raw feel it."

Cain stood, turning his back on the Viewer. "You feel too much." He walked away without waiting for them, knowing they would follow.

Cain's son was alive. She believed Raw, believed him with everything in her. They would find him. Somehow, they would bring Cain's son back to him.

Twenty minutes of walking later, they hit a road. An hour after that, that road forked and everyone was looking at her.

"Which way, now?" Glitch asked.

"Well, both ways head south," Cain said. _Well, that's a big help._

"Your mother said your memories would guide you, DG," Toto told her. "Let them."

"Yeah, well, mother said a lot of things," she muttered. "I dunno," she looked back and forth along the paths. "I mean, I guess it looks familiar, but I don't know."

"Remember, DG," he ordered.

She let out a frustrated growl. "It just might look like _every other road we've been down the last FOUR DAYS._"

Cain and Raw and Glitch were watching her looking both puzzled and impatient. She sighed. Throwing a temper tantrum wasn't going to help anyone and she really needed to stop letting her feelings towards Toto color her actions. Time to put that temper on a leash, so to speak. She released Glitch and ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to push aside her annoyance. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

"There was… a swing," she said, reciting the images in her mind. "And, the suns on the water in my eyes. A breeze off the lake."

Useless, all of it. Her mother had done too good a job of locking up her memories, it seemed. She huffed and kicked a rock, sending it bouncing along the path. Something clicked and she went to follow the rock, Glitch hurried along beside her. After only a few steps, she felt a massive sense that this was the wrong action. Dee turned and ran up the other fork, which led uphill, Cain right behind her. Glitch kept right on going in the direction he was headed though and she was too caught up in actually feeling like she knew where she was going to call him back. Raw did that for her and the headcase came running on.

"Hey, what's that?" he exclaimed.

"No!" Toto shouted in alarm. A shriek rent the air and DeeDee turned back in time to see a large mobat swooping down.

"Glitch!" she cried. Cain already had his gun out and fired twice, bringing the awful creature down. It fell at Glitch's feet and did not move again. She rushed to him.

"What happened?"

He was shaken, but completely unharmed. "Little beastie just came out of nowhere."

"Why did it attack? It's all alone." she asked.

"Probably a random hit," Cain reasoned. Something didn't sit right with that theory.

"But wouldn't it have just flown back to Azkadellia and lead her to us?"

Cain had no answers. "Well, it's dead now."

Toto piped up, "We should just move along like it never happened."

Given her recent promise not to let him bait her, DeeDee held her tongue on that statement. Cain did not.

"Like it never happened?" he said, incredulous. "Once Az finds out this one's missing, she's gonna have Long Coats swarming all over the Zone looking for it."

The shifter shrugged. "All the more reason to get moving."

Cain eyed the dogman. "You okay?" he asked with feigned nonchalance. "You're sweating up a storm."

Toto shook his head dismissively. "I'm fine."

DeeDee snorted. _Liar._ She glanced at the creature at her feet. The memory gave no warning this time. She saw a cave, mobats perched and flapping along the stone walls. She rocked back to the present. Then was pulled down again. She was a little girl, running through a hedge maze. She struggled to bring herself out of the memory enough to use it to her advantage.

"I know!" she tried to tell the others, but was unsure whether the words actually made it out of her mouth before she took off down the uphill path. She seesawed between reality and memory. She was herself, then a child; present, now past, and present again. She did not even know if the others followed her. Though she thought she could hear them calling her name. Down the hill and into a huge maze of hedgerow. This way and that, she darted through, in the footsteps of her childhood self. _Two little princesses dancing in a row…_And she was out. And stopped dead.

This was not the beautiful lake with the soft breeze. Massive trees grew hundreds of feet up into the sky, and all around her was gray death. She wandered forward in shock and found the swing quite by accident. She sat, unable to believe what she was seeing. She heard the others approach.

"You were right about the magical waters, DeeDee," Glitch told her, his voice solemn. "That's what Finaqua means in the ancient's language. Not sure about the translation now though."

_Death._ That was what Finaqua meant now, death. "This used to be paradise," she said, mourning the loss of something she couldn't remember.

"Not paradise now," Raw intoned.

"It was one of the first places Az scorched when she came to power," Cain said.

"She sure didn't leave much," Toto lamented. Cain shook his head.

"No."

"Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble."

DeeDee looked around, convinced for an instant that the statement had been spoken out loud.

"What was that?" she asked, but none of the others seemed to have heard it.

"_Two little princesses dancing in a row."_

"You guys," she started, jumping up from the swing. "You guys don't hear that?"

The voice was strange and compelling. It sang the familiar song, but what she felt it saying was "Come find me, please!" She hurried off through the woods in pursuit of the source. In a small part of her mind, she knew the others were not following her. It were as though she was two people. One controlled her body and took her further and further into the awful, dead woods. The other could only watch from the inside, screaming for her friends to not let her go off on her own. She'd told Cain she could not do it alone. Why had he let her go?!

"_Spinning fast and freely on their little toes."_

Through the woods, around a large tree, and down into a ravine, she found herself standing before the open maw of a deep foreboding cave. The small part of her knew she should not go in there, something bad would happen in there. Something bad _had_ happened in there. It was too late, she was heading in and the memory was pulling her under, with no one to hold on to.

_Someone cried out from within the forest. DG looked up from the rocks she and her sister were piling by the tree line._

"_Did you hear that?" she asked._

"_Hear what?" Kady asked back. DG stood and scanned the woods._

"_Let's go see what it is," she said, starting for the trees. Kady brought her up short._

"_No, we should get back. Mom said to stay close."_

_DG rolled her eyes. "If we did everything Mom said, we'd never have any fun," she retorted and headed for the woods, knowing her sister would follow, despite protestations to the contrary. "Come on, it's like an adventure."_

"_Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble!" Azkadellia called, before reluctantly coming after her. _

_It was true. Kady was the good daughter who did what she was told. Unless DG was there to tempt her into breaking the rules, that is. And the younger sister's adventures had landed them in trouble with their parents on several occasions. But on more occasions they had not been found out; like the apple-throwing tree and the bear or the time they'd climbed the tallest tree in Finaqua. Those were the ones that counted._

"_Two little princesses dancing in a row." The person who had called knew their song! She hurried faster. Over fallen logs and under branches, across boulders. She caught her dress on a stick and heard it rip, but did not care. This adventure promised to be something special. Around a tree whose trunk was wider than she was tall and down into a ravine, she saw the cave. She heard the singing still, though Kady didn't seem to. Under the song she heard someone begin to cry._

"_Do you hear _that_?" she asked. Kady nodded._

"_We should go get Mom and Dad," she told her younger sister. DG did not want to get her parents. They would spoil her adventure. As they always did. She entered the cave._

"_Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble," Kady told her again. DG wanted to tell her she was sorry, but she wasn't. Could not be. Her adventures were the only time she felt free._

_It was dark within the cave, with only the light from the opening to illuminated the rock walls. Kady caught up with her. It didn't look like a cave. There were large beams of wood holding up the ceiling and keeping the walls from crumbling down, like a mine. Someone _made_ this place._

"_Hello?" she called. There was no answer. Kady found an old lamp on the ground and with a wave of her hand she was able to light it. DG looked on in sad envy. Why did Kady have the power? The proper guidance. Why was Kady so special? She sighed, looking away. It was wrong to be jealous of her sister, but it was not as though she wanted Azkadellia to have any less than she had now, DG only wanted a little of it for herself as well. Was that wrong? Probably. It made her feel bad either way. As she turned from her sister, DG saw the lantern's glow on the rock face. There were symbols there._

"_Look at this!" she called, excitedly. Kady came to investigate._

"_It's the picture language of the ancients," she said in awe. DG bit her lip; oh, this _was_ something special!_

"_Can you tell what it means?" she asked. Her sister peered closer, working out the symbols._

"_Only some," she said. "At the dawn of time, good battled evil and the light conquered over the darkness. And something about an evil witch."_

_DG smiled to herself. Good always triumphed over evil. That was as old as the moons. The suns rose on the O.Z., the papay fields bloomed, and good conquered evil. It was just the way of things._

_She wanted to see more. There must be more of the ancients' writing in this cave. This must have been a special place. She continued on, deeper and deeper. And then… the cave stopped. It just ended. No more writing on the walls, nothing special. Her spirits fell._

"_Well, that was fun," Kady said, simply. And for her it had been fun, just another silly adventure, but DG had thought it would be so much more. As her sister turned to go, the lantern's light reflected off an oddly shaped rock and caught her eye._

"_Wait!" she said bringing Azkadellia to a halt. She tugged her back by the hand. Kady lifted the lamp higher so it shone on the wall where the cave dead-ended._

_It was a face. A huge, grotesque, monstrous face. With a huge gaping mouth, filling with jutting, jagged teeth._

"_Whoa!" she breathed in awe._

"_What is this place?" Kady asked, a trill of fear in her tone. DG understood that it scared her elder sister, but this was perhaps the most wondrous thing she had ever seen._

"_It looks ancient," she said. "Maybe it's a tomb!"_

"_I'm not sure," her sister said, taking her hand. "But that face creeps me out. Let's go."_

_DG pulled away. A sobbing wail sounded from behind to stone mask. _

"_Don't you hear it?" she asked. "There's someone trapped in there."_

_She could hear the crying and the song and something else. A voice whispered into her ear, into her head. The voice needed her. She found herself reaching out into the black hole of the stone mouth. She felt a massive pull and let out a startled shriek. Kady was behind her now, pulling her back, but she did not want to go. It had started her, yes, but she could feel magic, _real magic_, real _power_, flowing from herself into the rock. And it didn't feel bad._

_Azkadellia managed to pull her free, though, and both girls stumbled back as the eyes of the thing lit up like beacons. The mouth glowed and then exploded open in a shower of pebbles leaving a hole in the stone. The crying was coming from inside that hole._

"_What have we done?" Azkadellia whispered with horror. DG felt none of this, only a need to reach the other side of the opening. _

_On the other side of the rock wall there was a huge open chamber. Within the chamber a girl who couldn't have been any older than DG herself stood, facing the wall, and sobbing._

"_Are you okay?" DG asked her. The girl did not answer, only continued her loud weeping. DG wanted to comfort her, but Kady caught her back._

"_No, wait," she said. "How did you get here?"_

_It was a question that had not ever crossed DG's mind. Why? Why had she never wondered why this young girl was in this cave of the ancients? Azkadellia's words awakened a cold snaked of dread within her belly. Kady took her hand and backed up a step towards the hole at their backs._

"_Help me," the strange girl pleaded._

"_Our parents aren't far, we'll go and bring back help," Kady told her._

"_No!" The little girl vanished and in her place was an awful, ugly hag. Her skin looked green and wet, her hair black and stringy. Her eyes bugged out like a toads and her mouth held the same kind of jagged, jutting teeth as the stone edifice. Her manner turned frail and pleading. "I mean, please, don't leave me alone."_

_Something shrieked and flapped above and the girls looked to see terrible little monkey-like creatures with wings. The hag stood, taller than either girl, and frightfully skinny. A filthy black robe hung off her bony frame._

"_I've been waiting," she said. Her form seemed to flicker; here one minute, there the next. The dread-snake in DG's belly bared its fangs. "Calling. I thought this day would never come!"_

"I called you,"_ the sweet voice that had been singing said inside DG's head._

_Her eyes fell on the girl's joined hands and widened to a utterly unnatural size. "Ooh!" she cooed, voice low like a moan. A death moan. DG began to shake with fear. The hag gazed at the girls hungrily. "The magic is strong in you. Let go."_

"_No," Azkadellia said, her voice firm. "_You heard me. You came._"_ _DG started to cry. This was why Kady knew things she didn't, because Kady was stronger. "Don't let go."_

"_I'm scared," DG said, tears streaming down her cheeks, feeling the witch's call in her mind._

"_We have to stay together, DG," Kady commanded. The hag moved close, so close DG could smell the fetid odor of decay coming off her._

"_You can let go, little girl," the witch said, kindly. The voice in her head echoed this, adding, "_Stay with me. I'll love you and never leave you."

"_No," the elder sister ordered. _

"_LET GO!" the witch shrieked. The dread-snake struck and DG lost herself to overwhelming fear. She screeched and wet her dress, pulling away from her sister's protecting grasp she fled the cave. She could hear Azkadellia screaming behind her as she raced blindly from the cave. She heard the witch's laughter ringing in her ears and her mind. She felt Kady's tug in that place behind her heart, but it was too late. She rushed from the cave._

DeeDee was on her knees at the opening to the witch's chamber, crying as she had been in the memory. This is what had changed Azkadellia. And she had made it happen.


	20. Skipping Stones and Shiny Coins

**Things go from bad, to good, to bad again. No one likes a traitor.**

**PS: you know a great way to make a baby cry? I'll give you a hint: it involves candy**

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"It's my fault," DeeDee wailed. She knew the others stood not far, knew they could hear. She wanted them to hear, knowing they might leave. She wouldn't blame them if they did. Part of her wished they would. "I let the witch out. Everything that happened… it's all my fault!"

Cain's family, his dead wife; Glitch's brain; Raw and Lylo; The Mystic Man… Everything was laid at her door step, the blood was on her hands. She fell forward onto the cold, unforgiving rock floor of the cave and curled into a ball. Now that she had curled up, in a dark place, maybe she would die. That was how it worked, wasn't it? You curled up under a rock and died.

But she couldn't die, could she? No, she had to go on, because she was the key. She was the one who had to stop the witch that had taken her sister. She had to go on living, knowing all the pain she had caused. But, if she _did_ die, right now, she wouldn't have to worry about that anymore. If the hand of God reached down and smote her, she could not be held responsible and would be off the hook. Did she really want to die? She wanted to go back and undo what had been done, but did she want to _die_ and never fix any of it?

As she pondered her own mortality, Cain picked her up and carried her from the cave, back into the sunshine. He settled her in a nice, sunny spot and sat beside her, pulled her back against him. He wrapped her in that wonderfully comforting embrace. Glitch was there, too. He held her hand and patted the back of it. Raw brushed the tear soaked hair from her face. They did not try to talk to her, just then. They simply let her cry and know that she wasn't alone.

After a while, when she had cried herself out, Cain gave her a little shake.

"You still in that cave?" he asked.

"It's all my fault," she told him, as thought he had not heard her when she said it before. Glitch touched her cheek.

"You can't blame yourself," he assured her, tawny eyes warm and more forgiving than she felt she deserved. Raw patted her hand and she could feel him pushing into her thoughts. She never seemed able to keep him out.

"Only a child," he said. It was true, she knew it, even if he hadn't been touching her mind.

"I left her there," she whispered. This was the most damning bit. "I ran away."

Cain pulled her away from himself and craned his neck around to look her in the eyes.

"You're not running now, are you?" he challenged. No, she wasn't running now. She was going to stay and fight this battle. This thought gave her a strength and confidence she'd thought lost forever in the darkness of the cave.

"You're right," she said, firmly, getting to her feet. The others rose after her. "I'm not running anymore."

Glitch beamed with enthusiasm and confidence. "Now what?" he asked.

"I have no idea," she said, spirits falling a bit. Toto piped up, out of nowhere.

"Let your memories-"

"Shut up!" she shouted at him. "You're no help at all, do you know that?"

Cain put a hand on her arm to cease her shouting. "Look," he said. "The Mystic Man told you to go south, right? What else did he say?"

"He said that my light must brighten a place that is dark," she recounted. Glitch hooked a thumb towards the cave.

"Can't get much darker than that," he said.

"He said I would find a message from my mother," she continued. "Now, I just have to figure out where the Hell it is."

She closed her eyes and tried to think, to remember something, but, like always when she _tried,_ nothing came. She shook her head. Something always forced the memories to the surface. She should go back to the beginning and see if anything stood out. The swing was as good a place as any, so she headed that way.

"How's she going to find anything, now?" Glitch hissed. "The lake the palace, it's all gone. Azkadellia's torched the place." Cain shushed him.

Dee found the swing and sat down in it, casting her eyes about, trying to leave her mind open to anything that might jog her magicked memories. Nothing, just dead trees and dirt and rocks. She remembered kicking a rock down the path earlier, in frustration. In her mind's eye she saw the stone go bouncing along the road, leaving ripples as though it were skipping across water. She and Azkadellia had been piling stones when DeeDee heard the witch's call. Why had they been piling stones?

"_Flat rocks fly."_ In her tower, Azkadellia had mentioned skipping stones across the lake. _"Round rocks die."_ They'd found the perfect stone. _That's_ what they were piling the rocks for, to keep it safe. For a special day! She jumped up from the swing and started looking around. It must still be there. It _must._

They'd piled the rocks not far from their mother's gazebo swing. She began to make sweeping passes, back and forth, farther away from the swing. She almost missed it, covered in dirt and moss. Almost, but not quite. She dropped to her knees and pulled away clumps of moss and rocks and brushed away dirt until she'd made it to the center of the pile. There, flat and smooth and vaguely heart shaped: the perfect stone. She only hoped this were the perfect day. She took with back to the swing and sat, holding it in both hands, concentrating. She'd found it.

Now what?

Nothing. That's what. Nothing happened. It was just a rock, as cold and lifeless as the rest of Finaqua.

"Dammit!" she growled, jumping to her feet and taking a few angry steps. She let out a shout of frustration and threw the rock as hard as she could. She'd thrown it side arm and it skipped along the ground. Only, like in her head before, it left little ripples in it's wake, as though jumping across a flat surface of water. The ripples glowed and spread and suddenly all the dead trees were falling, disappearing into a lake that had not been there ten seconds before. Green grasses sprouted and the suns shown on blue waters. There was a palace off in the distance by the shore and a sweet little gazebo beside her. She stood there stunned by the beauty of the place. Finaqua, paradise _found_.

A small brazier sat in the middle of the gazebo, where the swing had hung, and now a smoky image swirled and rose from it. The haze solidified into her mother and spoke.

"DG, if you're seeing this message then you've overcome much on your journey," the image of the Queen said. _No kidding._ "The Emerald of the Eclipse has the power to bring either light or darkness to the O.Z.. As you now know, the evil witch of the dark now lives inside your sister." _And, as you now know, it's your fault,_ her holographic eyes seemed to say. "And that is why she knows not of my plan and why I can only trust the emerald's power to you." Was that a little bitterness, she heard in her mother's voice?

She cast a self-conscious glance back at the others, who were also watching the holograph. Her mother went on. "Make haste now. South, to the Realm of the Unwanted. There you must find a man named Ahamo. He will help you in the final leg of your journey to save the O.Z.. To the Gray Gale, to the emerald."

And that was all. No "I love you." No "Good luck." She pretended not to feel disappointed and turned to her friends.

"So, anyone know who Ahamo is?" she asked, not expecting an answer. No one ever knew what her mother's stupid instructions meant. Little breadcrumbs leading her home, only birds ate half of them. She was taken totally by surprise when everyone glanced about uncomfortably. "What?"

Toto was the one who told her. "Ahamo is your father."

"You're shitting me!" she exclaimed. The man who had abandoned his family, whose name her mother had banished from the lands. _This_ was who she had to find. _Great. _"So, how do we get there? Aside from _more_ walking."

"I know the way," Cain said. "It's been a while, but I can still get us there."

"Is it far?" she asked him.

"Far enough," he responded. She lifted an eyebrow.

"Can we rest first?" Glitch asked hopefully. Cain opened his mouth, but it was DeeDee who spoke first.

"I don't think we have time, Glitch." He hung his head a moment, then rallied. He took her hand and motioned for Cain to lead the way.

Two hours later, DeeDee was regretting her decision to keep them moving. Her feet hurt and she was tired and crabby.

"Do princesses get to be carried around on litters?" she asked. Glitch chuckled.

"I suppose it could be arranged," she told her with a wink. Cain had dropped uncharacteristically closer to the back of the line as they made their way through the woods. She only occasionally glanced back to reassure herself he was still there, so she didn't notice at first that he and Toto had stopped walking. She tugged Glitch to a halt and looked back. The two men were standing quite a distance off. She hurried back towards them. Something was up.

When she got close enough to be able, she heard Cain say, "… say we should pretend it never happened? You were sweatin' then, too."

His voice was calm and even but something in his tone made the hair on her neck stand on end. She brought Glitch to a halt, not wanting to get too close. Raw stood at her back. Something about Cain just now was dangerous.

Toto shifted on his feet uncomfortably and moved to walk away from the tin man. Cain's hand shot out, quick as a snake, and caught the shifter's arm. Iridescent coins spilled from Toto's hand and fell to the ground. Cain's pistol was on him before she could blink.

"I'd shoot you in the heart if I thought you had one," he said, in that same deadly calm voice.

"Don't!" Dee cried, dropping Glitch's hand and rushing to the blonde's side. He gestured at the coins with his free hand. "What are those?"

"Breadcrumbs for Azkadellia," he told her. "She had an inside man all along. Didn't she?" The last directed coldly at Toto.

"A spy!" Raw accused angrily from where he stood with Glitch, who looked shocked.

"I _knew_ I couldn't trust you!" she barked at the shifter, who looked away from her.

"Your trail ends here," Cain said ominously.

"You don't understand," her old teacher protested. "I stopped dropping those a while back."

"Afraid you'd get caught?" Toto shook his head. DeeDee couldn't stand to hear anymore of his bullshit. She swung out, catching him, herself, and the others by surprise. Her fist connected with his nose and his head snapped back like a rag doll's.

"You son of a bitch!" she shouted, lunging at him and swinging her fists wildly. "You were supposed to be like family!"

Glitch had to literally pick her up off her feet to pull her away from the man, who was now bleeding from his nose. "I still am, DG," he insisted beseechingly. "I care more about you than anyone else in the whole world!"

"Why do I have trouble believing that?" she demanded, struggling within the headcase's grasp.

"For the last _fifteen_ annuals," he began, telling the truth for probably the first time. "I've been locked up in a dark hole. Azkadellia came to me and offered me my freedom, if I tracked you. If I had said no, she would have killed me on the spot! So, I figured at least I could keep her off your back, while I help you rediscover your magic."

"If that were the truth, why did you drop those disks," Cain demanded, gun still trained on the shifter's heart. "Why not let us get away clean?"

Toto scowled. "You know as well as I do that would have never worked. She'd have been on us quick as death." His tone was pleading, his eyes begging them to understand. "Now, look, you guys. Whether you like it or not, those things bought us valuable time."

She hated to admit it, but his argument did have a certain amount of logic to it, save for one point. She would ask, and judge him based on his answer. "Why didn't you tell us, then?"

"I swear, DG, I was just about to," he lied. She would have accepted it if he'd they'd never believe him, because that was a reasonable fear. But, if he hadn't told them by now, there was no way he was ever going to. She shook her head.

"I think it's time to put this dog down." Cain cocked back the hammer on his gun. Sometime in her life, DeeDee had seen a movie where someone asked why villains always wait to cock back their guns instead of having them ready before they go after the hero. The answer was, because it's a scary fucking sound. Whoever said it had been right. Even when the gun was pointed at someone else.

She laid her hand on Cain's forearm. "Don't," she said, begging him with her eyes to understand. This wasn't for Toto. This was for her. And Cain, himself. The tin man lowered his weapon.

"Thank you, DG," Toto breathed in relief. She curled her lip at him.

"This doesn't mean I trust you. It just means I don't want him to kill you. Besides, you're the only one who knows what Ahamo looks like."

"We can't just let him walk," Cain insisted. Glitch piped up.

"We could keep him on a short leash."

"Excellent idea," she told him with a half smile. _Nice pun._ "If you really do want to help us, you won't mind traveling as the pooch."

Cain took a menacing step towards the shifter and spoke in that calm, cold voice. DeeDee could happily go the rest of her life never hearing him speak that way again. "One wrong move and I'll take you on a walk you don't come back from. You hear me?"

Toto nodded solemnly. "Yeah." He shifted back into the innocent looking terrier. Raw wagged a finger at him warningly.

"Now that we know Azkadellia had a spy, she's a lot closer than we thought. We gotta pick it up a notch," Cain told them all, as Glitch bent to pick up the coins. "Come on. Let's move."

_Great_, DeeDee thought as she followed. _Now, instead of walking all over the O.Z., we're running._

But the running, while awful to go through, helped their time and in less than two hours, Cain told them they were close. An hour later, he said they were really close. Half an hour after that, he didn't say anything. Ten minutes later, they found themselves in a huge pasture. Toto ran off barking into the hip high grass.

"What?" Cain asked indignantly in response to the looks they gave him. "Trust me, the Realm of the Unwanted is here… Somewhere."

Toto hopped up and down in the grass ahead of them, braking madly. "I think he's found something," Glitch said. They all hurried after the four-legged traitor. At one point in their run, Glitch tripped and went sprawling. He popped up like a bobber and DeeDee actually found she could smile. Almost giggle.

Toto led them to what looked like a wooden trapdoor, set in the middle of the field. _Why not?_ She'd seen a lot weirder things in the O.Z., four of which were standing there with her. Cain put on hand on the butt of his pistol and opened the door with the other. It looked like a mine shaft, going down and down into the depths of the O.Z.. She could hear the distant sounds of a city, including car horns.

"Well, that's something you don't see every day," Glitch said. She nodded.

"I'll go first," Cain instructed. "Then, Glitch. You, kid. And Raw."

"How do we get the dog down?" Glitch asked.

"I'll take him," Cain said, though did not sound happy about it. DeeDee's brows furrowed.

"You can't climb down there with only one hand," she told him. He looked like he was going to argue, but she said, more firmly. "You're _not_ climbing down there with one hand. What if you slip?"

"Put him in your vest," Glitch suggested.

"That'll work," DeeDee agreed. She picked up the dog and waited for Cain to undo the top buttons on his vest. He scowled at her the whole time she buttoned the pup snuggly against his chest. He scowled more when she smiled and tried not to laugh, and mentioned how adorable he looked.

Then he lead the way down the shaft into the underworld realm of the Unwanted.


	21. Forgotten Realm

**Down into the depth of Hell we go... or atleast, you know. like.. downtown.**

**PS: I can;t believe how much you guys hate babies. i mean... i know i drink their tears and all, but... i mean... damn.**

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The Realm of the Unwanted looked like the seedy part of some city. Neon flashed from all over. Various smells wafted about in a rather unpleasant, but tolerable, blend; smoke, car exhaust, and strange food she did not even want to contemplate. It was so normal looking, if you didn't look up at the dirt and roof sky above, you might forget you were underground at all.

Cain had removed Toto from his vest and was now carrying the pooch under one arm. When Raw had made it to the bottom of the ladder, the tin man motioned everyone forward. DeeDee kept a tight hold on Glitch's hand, as he was so distracted by all the sights and sounds around him, he kept trying to wander off. The crowds were loud and boisterous and it was hard to move about without getting shoved one way or the other by someone passing by. DeeDee was glad she didn't have anything valuable, for there were surely pick pockets about.

"Cain," Glitch began, a little nervously. "Help a zipper-head out with a memory or two. In this realm, who exactly are the Unwanted?"

"Criminals, outlaws, and a few living experiments gone wrong," the tin man informed. _Oh, lovely._

"And my deadbeat dad is here? How odd," DeeDee muttered sarcastically. Glitch suddenly pulled free of her grasp, almost skipping over to the side of the street.

"Hey, look!" he exclaimed.

"What's he doing now?" Cain asked unhappily.

"I dunno," Dee told him, going to join the headcase. He was investigating a small coin box that hung on the wall beside a large plate glass window.

"Anybody got any money?" he asked, sounding very much like a child who wanted to ride the mechanical spaceship in front of Wal-Mart. Written in garish orange and green on the coin box was: Ask Airofday.

"Questions are answers unspoken," DeeDee read the rest aloud. "That doesn't even make sense."

"Awe, come on. Please?" Glitch pleaded, drawing out the last word. Cain gave a short sigh and pulled his gun from the holster. Was he gonna shoot it? No, he twirled it around and slammed the butt into the coin box. Dee smirked in amusement.

"That works," she quipped. Cain gave her a wink and reholstered his weapon. Crappy carnival music piped out of the box and a curtain behind the window pulled back to reveal Airofday, a silly gold, Punjabi-dressed, six-armed rip off of Kali, the multi-armed Hindi Goddess.

"Can't say they didn't welcome us with open arms," Glitch intoned, over-acting the insinuation. Dee shook her head and chuckled. Airofday's sextuple arms began to move about sinuously.

"Questions are answers unspoken," she said from behind the glass.

"Isn't it a little cramped in there?" Glitch asked. Raw snorted with laughter behind him.

"Reference to uncomfortable tight spaces," Airofday recounted. "Answer, yes."

Glitch and Raw both lit up with amusement. "Isn't that good?" Glitch asked Dee with a huge grin. She nodded indulgently.

"Amazing," she said, taking his hand. "Now, we have to go find Ahamo."

"Answer," Airofday intoned. "Ahamo is a hard man to find."

This caught everyone's attention. "You know him?" Glitch asked in astonishment. Airofday responded by silently pointing to her coin box. Glitch frantically gestured towards the box. "Money!"

Cain just gave Airofday a hard look and held up his pistol, hammer cocked. She got the message.

"Answer," she said. "Know personally? No."

"Wow, that's a big help. Thanks," DeeDee snarked.

"We were told that Ahamo was here in the realm," Glitch told the woman behind the glass.

"Reply, know of someone who might know this Ahamo," Airofday responded. "Answer, The Seeker."

"Where can we find The Seeker?" DeeDee asked. Airofday's response was to point each of her six arms in a different direction. Raw doubled over in laughter. Glitch grinned at her mischievously.

"And you thought _I_ had trouble with directions," he quipped. Airofday stepped out of her window, revealing the two Indian girls who stood behind her to provide the extra arms. After a moment, she of the golden garb exited the door beside the window.

"The Seeker," she explained. "Doesn't talk to just anybody. He doesn't like strangers."

"He'll like us," Cain insisted. "Where is he?" She looked boredly off to one side.

"I might be able to arrange a meeting," she said, obviously fishing for an offer of payment.

"Really? What's the catch?" Cain asked.

"Twenty platinums," the faux-goddess told him. DeeDee had no idea how much that was, but, from the way Glitch reacted like he'd been stuck with a pin, she assumed it was a lot.

"Twenty platinums?!" the headcase coughed in shock. Cain didn't even bat an eyelash.

"Done," he said. DeeDee knew full well they had no way of paying the woman, but Airofday was unaware of that fact. The princess smiled inside her mouth. "Where is this meeting place?"

"Local tavern at the edge of the Realm," the golden woman told them. "Meet there at the rising of the first moon, after midnight."

"We'll be there," DeeDee said, trying to sound as cool as Cain did. She doubted she pulled it off, but it was enough to satisfy Airofday, who smiled. The not-a-goddess then reentered her building and the curtain in the window closed again. "Midnight? How long is that from now? It was still light out when we came down here."

"Six hours," Cain said. DeeDee gawked at him.

"How do you do that? You don't even have a watch!" He gave her a half smile and pointed up behind her. She turned and saw a huge clock tower, the kind with a clock face on each side.

"Alright," she said, holding her hands up in submission. "I'm an ass. But what are we supposed to do until then?"

"How about we get something to eat?" Glitch said, making a face. He gazed at Cain beseechingly.

"We don't have any money, Glitch," Dee told the headcase apologetically. She really was sorry, too, as she was just as hungry as he. Glitch pouted, trusting his hands into his pockets petulantly.

"Hey, what?" he said. He removed his hand from his coat pocket, proffering several folded bills. "Look, money!"

Cain took the bills from him and fanned them with his thumb. "Where'd you get this?"

Glitch was smiling, rather pleased with himself. "I took it from Demilo's wagon. I guess I forgot. Now, we can get some food!"

The headcase was bouncing with excitement. DeeDee gave a doubtful look around. While the concept of eating sounded great in theory, the offerings of the realm seemed dubious at best. _Should have asked Kali about a safe place to eat._

"Come on," Cain said, motioning them all forward. He looked back and forth between all the eateries and vendors along the stretch of road. DeeDee had no idea what he was looking for, but hoped he knew what he was doing. After a while, he stopped and led them to a small diner, Catfish Jack's. He opened the door and motioned them all inside.

The smell was divine. She had no idea what they were cooking, but it smelled wonderful. DeeDee really wanted to believe what her nose was telling her.

"How do you know this place is okay?" she asked Cain.

"There's a blue double moon in the window. That's the logo of the O.Z. NHFB - Non-Hazardous Food Bureau," he told her. "Means this place is clean… ish."

"Good enough for me," Glitch said. She agreed wholeheartedly (and whole-stomachedly). They found a booth and sat down. It was against the far back corner, so no one could sneak up on them from behind. Cain had pushed her in ahead of himself and sat on the outside, back to the wall so he could watch the door. DeeDee looked at the menu in utter bewilderment for a moment before setting it aside.

"Just order me something I can eat," she told Cain. When the food came, she didn't even bother to ask what hers was. There was a huge slab of something covered in what might have been gravy, something leafy and green that had been boiled, and a big pile of something purple that was mashed. It was all delicious, but he had ordered her far too much. Toto wriggled out from under his arm and stood, forepaws on the table, on the seat between them. She pushed her plate over so he could gobble down her leftovers.

"Cain, can I ask you something?" she inquired. He grunted in response, mouth full of food. She took it as a yes. "You were a tin man in Central City, right?" He nodded. "Why was your house so far away, then?"

He swallowed and wiped his mouth on his napkin before answering. "That was a resistance safe house. After Zero found out about me, we had to get out of the city and go into hiding. We were only there a week before he found us. Someone was working for Azkadellia inside the resistance."

"Do you know who?" she asked. He shook his head.

"It was a long time ago. Whoever it was, they're probably dead by now," he said, spearing a forkful of something blue on his plate. "By one side or the other."

She nodded. Even if the Resistance had not found the traitor out, working for Azkadellia did not really have a great retirement plan. With her stomach full, DeeDee was having a difficult time keeping her eyes open. She kept nodding forward and losing track of the conversations going on around her.

"Hey, kid," Cain said gently. She opened her eyes to find that she was leaning heavily on his shoulder. She immediately sat bolt upright as if splashed with water.

"Sorry," she said, blushing. Glitch and Raw both gave her soft smiles.

"It's time to go," Cain said. She could hear the laughter in his voice. They'd let her sleep for hours!

Out on the street, Cain lead the way to the tavern Airofday had specified. He kept a watchful eye about them as they made their way down the busy street of the Realm. A huge blue neon sign proclaimed that they had reached the Local Tavern. DeeDee was mildly surprised to find that it was the establishment's actual name.

"I don't like the looks of this place," Cain told them ominously. "Why don't you guys wait out here? I'll cut the deal myself."

"No!" DeeDee snapped quickly. Cain's brows lifted in surprise. "We stay together," she told him emphatically, telling him with her eyes that this was not negotiable. He didn't push the issue.

Inside, Cain dropped Toto to the floor. The shifter scurried under a table. It looked like the place had been decorated by an army veteran. All camouflaged netting and jungle plants. From hidden speakers lazy sitar music played, at odds with the place's décor.

"You, sit and stay," Cain told the pooch, who immediately dropped to the ground and wuffed. He looked back at her. "You don't look too nervous," he remarked.

She shrugged. "I guess I just feel safe when I'm with you guys," she told him. It was true, though she really did feel anxious inside. Something was not right here.

"Really?" Glitch asked. "I don't."

"There's nothing to be afraid of." Airofday came striding out of nowhere. DeeDee was uncomforted by the golden woman's assurance. People that had been seated around the tavern suddenly took leave of their tables and quit the place as though some signal had been given. One probably had. Cain put his hand on the butt of his gun.

"Where's The Seeker," DeeDee demanded of the fake goddess.

"I'm here," said a man, coming from behind a pillar draped with camo-netting. He immediately put DeeDee in mind of Tom Petty; the same limp sandy blond hair falling over his eyes. He had ridiculous, fuzzy mutton chops and wore a long trench coat, a darker shade than Cain's. He moved to stand before her and demanded, "Show me your palm."

"What for?" Cain demanded in kind, taking a step forward.

"You want my help or not?" The Seeker asked challengingly.

Dee touched the tin man's arm, telling him to stand down. She released Glitch's hand, stepping forward and held up her right hand, palm out, as though taking an oath. The man smirked, knowing full well she knew what he'd meant. "The other one," he told her. She lifted the marked hand, showing him the symbol. For an instant he actually looked relieved, which was confusing.

"Now!" Airofday shouted. Men popped up from behind the bar and around pillars, some holding nets. They rushed the small party.

"We had a deal!" The Seeker yelled to Airofday. Just before the golden woman's men reached them, someone killed the lights. DeeDee shrieked as she was lifted off her feet and thrown over the shoulder of an unseen assailant.

"No!" she screamed, struggling. She could hear her friends shouting for her. She pushed on her attacker's shoulder and forced herself into an upright position. She caught the man under his jaw her with her hand, forcing his head backwards sharply. He lost balance and they both tumbled to the floor. She kicked out, hitting something soft and was rewarded with a loud groan from her assailant. She scrambled to regain her feet. Cain was yelling her name. She called back in kind, but when she would have gone to him, the man she had downed caught her ankle and jerked her off her feet again. She caught her head on the corner of a nearby table and saw stars. Then, saw nothing.


	22. Where We Come From

**Here we meet the long lost father DeeDee never wanted and find the Gray Gale.**

**PS: you know what fathers all have? Babies.**

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DeeDee awoke with a massive headache. She could hear the blood sloshing in her ears. No, wait. That was the sound of waves nearby. She opened her eyes and saw she was in a small, round room, laying on a makeshift bed. Light poured from a hole in the center of the ceiling where a ladder rose up and out. She jumped to her feet and fought a wave of nausea and dizziness. She heard a key turn in a lock loudly. She frantically scanned the room and grabbed the first object she saw that could be used as a weapon. Yes, it was a broom, but brooms have wood handles. A man came through the one small passage way that led from the room. The Seeker.

"Going somewhere?" he asked. She snarled, holing the broom like a fighting staff.

"Where are my friends?" she demanded.

"Last I saw of them, they were putting up a good fight," he told her, hopping down from the corridor into the room proper. Her friends were not here. They'd been separated again.

"So, poor you only get a quarter of the bounty," she growled. He advanced on her and she backed away, trying to keep the ladder between them.

"I didn't take you for the bounty," he said, smiling. She felt sick.

"Where I come from, freaks like you drive vans."

"DG, you don't understand, so just calm yourself," he said with a chuckle.

"How do you know that name?" she asked. He only smiled wider.

"I'm not a kidnapper," he assured her.

"Then take me back to my friends, Seeker," she ordered. Her mind was whirling a mile and minute. If she could get one good hit with the broom, she could take him down long enough to climb up the ladder and out. After that, she didn't know. Getting out of this room was as far as she could think ahead.

"I only call myself "Seeker" so others in the Realm will come to me when they want to find Ahamo," he told her. "It was your mother's idea."

That gave her a moment's pause. "What do you know about my mother?" she challenged.

"Well, I know you're just like her. You got your passion and your grit from her," he said, his voice soft. He turned to a small nook set into the wall. It contained two small clay figurines which shimmered softly with light. "Your artistic ability from me."

She snorted. "That explains why I don't have much," Dee said snidely. "Dad," she finished, spitting out the word like it was a bad taste in her mouth. She'd painted the figures with Azkadellia as a child. The memory didn't overtake her, she just knew.

"That's right," he said. "I'm your father. The one your mother calls Ahamo."

He was smiling now, his eyes misty. "I have been dreaming of this day, of seeing you again."

"Yeah, whatever," she responded. She knew she was being harsh, but she could not hold back the bitterness the thought of a long absent father awakened inside her. "Give me whatever my mother sent me to you to get and I'll be on my way."

He was smiling at her as though she were confused about something, like he knew something she didn't. Which was likely, since everyone else in the O.Z. seemed to.

"Like it or not, DG, I'm your father," he told her. She curled her lip in involuntary disgust.

"I never had a father," she told him bitterly. "And even if I did, it wouldn't be _you_. You abandoned my mother. You stole me away from my friends and left them to the Long Coats. You're a complete bastard and I-"

He grabbed the broom handle and pulled, instead of letting go of her only weapon, she held on and was tugged forward. "Stop, DG!" he commanded. "Everything you think you know, you don't. Now, let me explain."

"Explain what?" she barked, yanking the broom away. He chuckled, shaking his head.

"Oh, you're a pistol, I'll give you that much," he said. The affection in his tone made her skin crawl. "Just like your mother. Just as lovely, too."

She wanted to vomit. "Don't try to spoon feed me this lovely-dovey Daddy bullshit," she told him.

"My feelings are as real as they get, DG," he told her, sounding so sincere it made her gag. He reached into a box and offered her what looked like a miniature weather vane set into a metallic, compass-like base. "Go on, it's from your mother."

She took it, still holding the broom in one hand. "What is it?"

"It'll lead you to the Gray Gale and the emerald," he told her. She sat down and inspected the strange device. He knelt near her side. She leaned away from him involuntarily. "DG, I know this is a lot for you to handle right now. All I ask is that you open your heart. Trust me."

"Trust you?" she balked. He might as well have asked her to jump off that cliff at the papay fields.

"Can you?" he asked. She gave a single mirthless laugh.

"I doubt it," Dee said, truthfully. "But I don't have a lot of choice in the matter, do I? I'm alone. My friends are captured or worse. All I can do is try to find the emerald and stop Azkadellia. And you're all I've got, _Dad_." She stressed the name with harsh sarcasm. Ahamo stood and took his coat from a peg on the wall.

"We have a long way to go and not much time," he told her. He held out his hand for the vane and she gave it to him. He slipped it into his vest, then started to ascend the ladder. She followed in suit.

After she climbed out the hole, DeeDee saw that the room had been dug into the ground and was covered with a pile of interwoven sticks. It sat near the shore of a large lake, not far from the tree line. Ahamo lead her down the shore a bit before he stopped.

"Now what?" she asked impatiently. He took out the vane and handed it back to her.

"Hold it in both hands, like this," he said, cupping his own in demonstration. She did so. "Now, concentrate. Focus on the emerald and this little baby will do the rest."

So, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She opened them and the weather vane had begun to spin. Finally, something was working. She shut her eyes again and concentrated. And focused and concentrated. Then focused some more. She growled in frustration. "Ugh, it just keeps spinning!" she complained to her father. He stood by her side.

"Maybe you're trying to hard," he said gently. " Clear your mind. Remember how it felt when you were a little girl, how the light flowed through you."

So, she did. She thought of the spinning doll, how she had felt it with her mind and the place behind her heart. She thought of the tree in the papay field, how warmth had flowed from her to the tree. _I need to find the Emerald of the Eclipse_. She stopped trying to force it and just waited for the warmth, the touch behind her heart, to come. It did, just barely. A little trickle of warmth and energy lowed from her into the device in her hands. The vane stopped spinning and she heard a little click and whirring sound come from it. Her mouth fell open in shock.

"Did you see that?" she asked her father excitedly. She turned, only to find that he was gone. _Huh?_ She looked back to the device, which was still clicking and whirring pleasantly away. It pointed out over the lake she turned that way and was startled by a huge reflection coming towards her. She heard a loud roaring sound and turned to look up behind her, almost toppling over into the shallow water. "You gotta be kiddin' me," she breathed. Her father was piloting a large, red and while hot hair balloon. He dropped down feet from her on the gravely shore.

"Hurry," he said, motioning her forward. She climbed into the basket and grabbed the supports with a death grip. He tugged the gas control and fire spurted up, heating the air in the balloon. They lifted off, into the sky.

For a long while, neither of them spoke. After a time, DeeDee learned to not look down over the side of the basket and, thus, stopped feeling ill.

"You never used to be afraid of heights," Ahamo said. The affectionate way he spoke was irritating.

"Well, things change," she snapped. He sighed.

"Oh, don't I know it," he said, wistfully. "Fifteen years ago I was husband to the Queen, father of two little girls, and happy. Now…" he trailed off. "Well, things certainly do change."

"You said 'years'," Dee blinked. "Everyone I've met here says 'annuals'."

He smiled, looking proud of her for having caught the little slip. She looked away. "That's because I'm not from the O.Z. originally," he told her. She looked back in shock.

"You're not?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I was born on the Other Side. Oh, long time ago. 1908 if I recall."

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed in disbelief. Her father was almost a hundred years old!

"I was born on a small farm. All I ever wanted to do was get out, see the world," he told her. "So I hooked up with a traveling carnival when I was fourteen."

"You actually ran away with the circus?" she asked, incredulous. He laughed.

"I suppose I did, at that," he responded. "I did odd jobs for a while, trying to find my niche. Couldn't swing or grip properly, so I couldn't be an acrobat. Wasn't able to make kids laugh, so I couldn't be a clown. You get the idea." She nodded. She was annoyed with herself for actually being interested in the story, but let him go on. "One fine day, the man who owned the carnival happened to meet up with this salesman. He decides to buy a hot air balloon and give folks rides in the thing. Well, no one at the carnival wanted to run the crazy thing, so I stepped up and, wouldn't you know it, I'd found my place."

He was gazing out at the clouds, bluish in the failing light, a fond expression on his face as he recalled his youth. Dee almost wished she didn't hate him so much.

"Was doing a test run the day before the fair opened somewhere in Nebraska one June, when a freak storm came up and broke my anchor line. I got pulled over to this side," he went on. "It was a rough crossing, but when the clouds cleared I was hovering over this crystal blue lake, and the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen."

"Mother?" she asked, the name still feeling odd on her tongue. He gave her a soft smile and nodded.

"From that day on, I was hers," he said. "We married, had two beautiful daughters."

DeeDee was starting to work out the story in her mind. Fifteen years ago. "Until I ruined everything," she said. He gave her a sympathetic look.

"Your mother and I would have given anything to keep that memory from you." He said it with such sincerity, she thought he might have been telling the truth. For his part anyway. The Queen certainly hadn't seemed reluctant in the matter.

"No, I should know the truth," she said. What good would it do for her to stay in the dark about her part in the fall of the O.Z.?

"When your sister… killed you; when your mother gave you second life, we knew something drastic had to be done," he recounted. "That's why I took you to the Other Side, brought you to that tiny farmhouse."

DeeDee didn't want to ask, but could not stop herself. She tried to keep her voice even. "Why didn't you stay with me?"

"I wanted to," he said then and when his voice cracked she could not keep herself from believing him. Her throat tightened and she looked away, so he would not see the tears that slipped passed her lashes. "My job was here, though. I had to stay. To protect the secret of the emerald and prepare for your return."

"That's why you left, why Azkadellia called you a thief." He may have nodded, but she didn't turn to see. They did not speak again until just before dawn when the devise she held began to whir and click and ding frantically.

"There!" she exclaimed, pointing the way it. Ahamo began to descend. The suns had risen by the time they landed in a small clear spot at the edge of a steep slope that fell away from the forest. Her father hopped out of the basket and tired the anchor rope to the base of a small tree. Dee held the device and tried to get her bearings. The vane spun and clicked, turning first this way then the other. It found its direction and whirred and dinged. Dee hadn't taken more than ten steps in that direction when it started spinning again. When it came to a stop this time, the whole vane glowed green and dinged wildly.

"I think that means we're here," she said. She hoped she was right, because Ahamo seemed to have no clue.

"But, I don't see anything," he said. It was true. They were looking into the forest. There were trees and underbrush, ferns and little bushes, but other than that. She cocked her head to the side, in puzzlement. She noticed something, a strange inconsistency in the lines of branches, cutting across leaves. Like the way a straight line looks when half of it is dipped into water and the light refraction breaks it. She tilted her head slowly back and the refraction shifted. She took a step to the side and a clear, almost invisible doorway took shape before them. It was just like the armor of the alien in Predator, she thought.

Her marked hand began to burn as it had before the locked doors of the ice palace. And she raised her hand, palm out. The doors clicked eerily and swung inward. They went in. DeeDee gazed around in amazement as the walls slowly turned from trees and ferns into cold, gray stone. They turned a corner and found themselves in a large chamber, a massive hole in the center with a winding staircase leading down.

"Your mother told me about this place," Ahamo said, awed. "But I never dreamed it would be so beautiful."

"This is a crypt," she said, the thought just occurring to her. He nodded. "Whose?"

"The ones whose blood runs through your veins," he told her with gravity. "The royal succession that leads to you."

_Dead royals._ She knew she should feel awed, but did not. Just because you were a descendant, did not mean the glory of others did, or should, pass to you. _Because, we are all like snowflakes._ Ahamo walked around the stairs and stopped before a large set of white doors.

"The oldest rests here," he said. "She was your greatest great grandmother. The Original Slipper. First to make it through to the O.Z. from the Other Side."

DeeDee looked at the silver name plate and read the inscription. "Dorothy Gale."

"You were named in her honor," Ahamo said. Ah, being called DG made much more sense, now, as did why Ambrose had thought of her as Dorothy in the memory Glitch had shown her.

"And the emerald is guarded by the Gray Gale," she said out loud.

Set into the door, in lieu of a handle, was a brass plate. On this plate the stylized eye icon was set. She held up her marked hand and the brass began to glow. The doors opened inward onto a bright, blinding light. She could see nothing beyond. Dee took a step forward, looking back when Ahamo did not follow.

"This, you must do alone," he said. She felt a pang and wished her friends were there. She swallowed her uncertainty and stepped into the light. There was a flash and when she opened her eyes, she was standing in her own yard, before her own house. Everything was in hues of gray, like an old movie. _This must be how dogs see the world. _But a glance at her hands told her that she was still in color.

A look around told her that other things were different. A heart on a fence that did not exist when she lived there marked the house as number 39. A scarecrow stood in a field of wheat that was also wrong. A cat dashed passed, meowing loudly, and almost made her jump out of her skin. She hear a footstep behind her and whirled to see a young girl approaching.

She was maybe seventeen, hair in little braided pigtails that hung over her shoulders. She wore a dress that, even in shades of gray, was reminiscent of the uniforms at Em's Diner. On her feet she wore shoes of shining silver, what their real color was, Dee could not begin to guess.

"I've been waiting for you," the girl, the Gray Gale, the Original Slipper, said.

"You're Dorothy Gale," Dee breathed, now feeling the awe and humility she had lacked back in the mausoleum. No one had told her so, but DeeDee knew that this young girl had saved the O.Z. in her time. Dorothy took her hand and placed in it what looked like a small piece of quartz crystal, but clear brilliant green. All Dee could think was, _I thought it would be bigger._ Then it glowed and she could feel the power humming through her. She gasped.

"The Emerald of the Eclipse is in your hands now," Dorothy told her. Dee opened her mouth to speak, but there was another flash of blinding white light and she was walking out of the doors and back into the crypt. Ahamo awaited her there. She showed him the emerald, glowing in her hand. He smiled and clasped her arm proudly.

"Come on," he said. They left the tomb. Outside, they hurried for the balloon. "We don't have much time before the eclipse, we have to hurry," Ahamo said. He paused and turned back to her. "DG, you are everything I'd hoped you'd be. I am so proud of you."

DeeDee felt tears gather behind her eyes, but they had no time to be shed. A troupe of Long Coats came on horseback and Azkadellia stepped from the tree line.

"I'm so proud of you," she parroted her father, derisively, stepping towards them. "My little girl. You're everything I hoped you'd be." She stopped before Ahamo. "Oh, Daddy. You old romantic."

The sorceress lifter her hand and waved Ahamo away, a surge of power sending him tumbling back. He actually began to shrink.

"No!" DeeDee shouted. She would have lunged for Azkadellia, but her father's now tiny form flew into the sorceress's hand.

"Oh, Daddy," she cooed dramatically. "I've missed you so much."

She clapped her hands together and DeeDee gasped, expecting to see blood ooze from between her sister's palms, but when she opened her hands they were empty.

"What did you do to him?" Dee demanded.

"He's quite comfortable," Azkadellia assured her. She held out her hand, palm up. "You have something for me." DeeDee stepped back, shaking her head. "You Don't want to share your shiny new trinket with your big sister?" the sorceress pouted. Dee glared at her.

"I never was good at sharing," she said defiantly. "And you're not my sister, witch."

Azkadellia's eyes narrowed and Dee's hand jerked open against her will. The emerald flew from her grasp and into Azkadellia's open hand. Dee was speechless. The sorceress held the jewel close and caressed it lovingly for a moment. _Oh, God… no._

"It doesn't look like much, does it?" her sister whispered, gazing at the glowing stone. "But it has so much power."

Out of pure desperation, Dee made a grab for the emerald. Azkadellia needed only lift her hand and Dee felt an iron band constrict her chest, her heart felt like it would burst and she could not drawn breath. The sensation lasted only an instant, but left her gasping for air like a fish out of water. Azkadellia gave her a saccharine sweet smile.

"I thought you were dead, little sister. Buried in the ground all these years," she said, with false sorrow. Her face and voice hardened then. "It's where you belonged. You look good in marble."

The sorceress waved her had and the world went black. For an instant DeeDee felt herself tumbling and falling, but could not see or hear or feel anything. Then, she felt something hard and cold against her back. She still could not see, but she could hear her own breathing, harsh with fear, and the sound of her heart beating. She lifted her hands and they encountered cold, hard, flat surface all around her. She suddenly knew where she was. Within the crypt there had been a huge green, marble sarcophagus.

"No!" she gasped, pushing in vain at the lid of the stone coffin. "No!" Then, she began to scream.


	23. Shock Wave

**Oh you little monkeys! This is the stuff you';ve been waiting for. But, dont stop reading after you get your kicks this chappy. There's still more to come, i promise.**

**PS: IF you Dont review the fook out of this chappy, oh... i just... I'll totally turn the whole thing to k+. i swear i will! and you'll never get your jollies!**

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A small voice inside DeeDee's mind told her that screaming like an idiot would only use up what little oxygen she had. This shocked her to silence. Gone were thoughts of ending things, gone were thoughts of freedom from pain. People were counting on her. People needed her. Cain, Glitch, Raw, Ahamo, and Azkadellia. And she was not helpless.

She risked a deep breath to steady herself. She forced the panic back into the depths of herself and focused on the people she loved. She would not let them down. The Mystic Man had told the witch that she, DeeDee, was more powerful than the sorceress. She had seen the things Azkadellia was capable of. She knew that power was somewhere inside herself. She lay there, in the dark of the marble coffin and waited. Breathing slowly, in and out.

Why did her magic never work? Why was she never able to let the light flow through her. Ahamo said she was trying too hard, Toto said it should be effortless. What was she doing wrong? She opened her eyes and saw nothing. No, not nothing. It was too dark to see herself or the green marble, but she could see the darkness. Light intrudes upon the dark, but the dark is the natural way of things. All things are borne from and return to the dark. Every time she tried to do magic, she had pictured a light in her head. But that was wrong.

She did not need a physical light, which her eyes could see. She needed the light that existed within the darkness, the light of life, of creation. And that was so dark, you could not find it with your eyes, you had to look with your soul.

She closed her eyes in the blackness of the sarcophagus and looked deep into herself for the dark light. She could feel it, waiting there. It seemed to laugh at her, like a child playing hide and seek. _You found me, but it sure took you long enough!_ She felt it build behind her heart, felt it spread through her from toes to fingertips to the top of her head. It was power, humming through her body and it felt amazing.

She gathered it into a ball in her chest, focusing all her thought on it. She needed to get out of this coffin. Right, now! She let the ball in her chest go, felt it burst from her like a shockwave. There was a thunderous boom and she felt the whole world shake. When she opened her eyes, she could see again. The top of the sarcophagus was gone . She sat up to find that she was covered in a fine layer of green dust. Dee climbed out of the coffin, green dust billowing off her clothes like smoke as she moved. She turned and fell back a few steps, awed by what she had done.

The entire marble casket had cracked in half. The lid lay in two separate pieces on the mausoleum floor.

"My God," she whispered. _Move!_ that little voice within yelled. She did not have time to stand around admiring the rubble. She had to stop the witch. She bolted for the corridor that led from the crypt.

Once outside, she was brought up short. She had no idea where she was or how to get to Azkadellia's tower. Even if she did know the way, she couldn't _walk_ there. She heard hoof beats then and ducked behind a tree. If she could surprise the Long Coats, she might be able to steal a horse. But, then what? _One step at a time._

She heard a familiar bark and the small, brown terrier that was once her teacher came scampering into view. She stepped out from her hiding place and he ran right to her, jumping and barking like mad. The horses came into view just then and her heart leapt with pure joy. Cain's horse had barely come to a stop when he slid from the saddle and ran towards her. She rushed to meet him and literally jumped into his arms. He crushed her close. She was laughing, but felt tearful. Raw joined them and Cain dropped her down to stand on her own two feet while the beast-man joined the hug. Over Cain's shoulder she could see Glitch struggling to keep all three horses under control.

"You okay?" Cain asked, stepping back to look her over.

"More or less," she said.

"Do you have the emerald?" Her heart fell.

"No," she told him.

"Where is it?" He had no idea how badly she had let them all down, she thought.

"She has it," Dee said. She looked him in the eye then, completely determined as she said, "But we're gonna get it back."

He looked at her for a moment, then nodded. He believed her. That made her more certain than anything else. They believed in her.

"Come on," he said. They hurried over to where Glitch was having trouble holding all the horses together. Cain took the reigns to his white stallion and swung up into the saddle. Raw did likewise. DeeDee threw her arms around Glitch, unable to not hug him. He buried his face in her hair as always and whispered her name reverently. When they pulled apart, Cain offered her his had and Glitch have her a boost up onto the back of the white horse. Glitch hopped up into his saddle as quick as you please and they were off and running.

DeeDee wrapped her arms around Cain's middle and held on for dear life. She'd never been on a horse in her life and was more than a little worried she would slip off one side or the other. She could feel Cain's ribs shake as though he were laughing, but could not hear over the pounding of the stallions hooves.

"You can loosen up a bit," he called back over his shoulder.

"Easy for you to say!" she retorted.

"Not really," he teased. "You're crushing my ribs."

"Deal with it!" she snapped. But she did loosen her grip a bit and found that she was in no more danger of slipping from the horse than she had been when holding on with her death grip. It occurred to her that, under different circumstances, being pressed this close to Cain would be rather pleasant. It was not, though, at present.

She managed to not fall and kill herself for the entire ride to Azkadellia's tower, which was far too long in her opinion. Glitch had to catch her as she fell off the horse when they stopped. Her legs ached in places she had not known she possessed and her ass was in worse shape.

"No more horses," she promised herself. Glitch laughed.

"It's not so bad, really, once you get used to it," he assured her. She just scowled at him and limped away. Cain stopped her.

"No time to rest, princess," he said. She huffed but allowed him to lead her into a tent that was set up behind the tree line. There were several disheveled men in the tent, all looking over a map spread on a makeshift table. Cain led her to a young man who couldn't have been much older than she was.

"Princess DeeDee," he said, cordially. "This is my son, Jeb."

Her mouth fell open in shock. She wanted to hug him again. The young man looked unsure what to do next, so DeeDee held out her hand for him to shake. So, Jeb was the leader of the Resistance. She felt proud of him vicariously through Cain.

Jeb and the others were apprised of the situation. Together, they outlined a plan to stop the witch from blocking out the suns. It all sounded very Lex Luthor to DeeDee, blocking out the suns. Jeb and his men would attack the tower by force, while Cain, Glitch and Raw slipped inside and to the Brain Room to stop the machine. Her job was to stop the witch. _Easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy._ She could feel the power inside herself now, but she was unskilled in controlling it. For all her faith and the confidence of her friends, DeeDee was just not sure she could do it. She'd go down trying, though.

Soon, they'd gathered on the gravelly slopes just beyond the tower. Jeb's men were getting ready. He was looking through binoculars at the tower, taking stock of their opposition.

"Security's as high as I've ever seen it," he told his father.

"Of course!" Glitch griped. "Why would it be easy?"

"Well, if you guys can blow the generators that power those turbines, we can sneak in the same way we escaped," Cain told Jeb.

"I'll send my best men down to lay charges," the young leader told him.

"Kinda boggles the noggin to think we're going in there with all guns blazing," Glitch said, his voice quivering slightly. Cain turned to him with a look of understanding.

"Well, let's hope we're the quiet part of this plan," he intoned. DeeDee realized all at once that Raw was nowhere to be seen. She tapped Glitch to gain his attention.

"Have you guys seen Raw?" she asked. Glitch's eyes fell.

"I think he's lost his nerve," the headcase said, gesturing towards the tree line. DeeDee immediately started off to find the Viewer. Glitch followed. She found Raw pacing beside a huge oak-like tree and wringing his hands. She went to him.

"Hey, Raw," she said. "I wanted to show you something."

He turned to her and she stepped back, lifting her shirt to expose her stomach. He looked at her puzzled. "That's where I'm not gnawed in half by papays," she explained, pulling her shirt back down. She wasn't quite sure where she was going with this, she only hoped it worked. "I would have been, if not for Glitch and Cain, because I was too afraid to jump off the cliff. But you, you just jumped right off, didn't you?"

He looked away, but she turned his face back to her. "You're not a coward, Raw. I know you're not. Being scared doesn't make you not brave. Doing what needs to be done even though you're scared is what makes you brave.

"And look at you! When we escaped from the cells, you protected me from Long Coats."

"Glitch and Cain," he protested.

"Yeah, but we didn't know that!" she admonished. "I can't even count the number of times we've been in danger and you've never run away. Not once."

"Raw do that for DeeDee," he told her. She put a hand to his cheek.

"I know. You did it for me, because you are very brave." She focused on how he had pushed into her thoughts and tried to send her emotions back through that link. He smiled at her, then, and wrapped her in a big, furry hug. He pulled back and they turned back to join the others. Glitch moved to her side with an uncertain smile.

"You know," he said, pondering out loud. "When I had a brain, I was twice as scared as I am now with only half a brain. Which means that, if I had no brain at all, I would be _four_ times braver than I was when I was brainy."

She stopped him. "Glitch, you know that half a brain you keep mentioning?" He nodded. "I'd take it over just about any whole brain in the O.Z. any day."

He gawked at her. "You would?" She nodded, but he looked unconvinced. "But I'd be more useful with a whole brain."

"Useful?" she balked. "Glitch, you've saved my life twice, now. And no matter how much brain you have, you couldn't ever be a better friend."

"Really?" His toffee eyes lit up and he looked so adorably sweet, before she knew it, she had taken his face in her hands and pressed her lips to his. They were warm and soft and he sighed against her mouth, leaning into the kiss. It was barely more than a chaste peck, but DeeDee felt warm from head to toe. He grinned at her sweetly and giggled. She laughed in return. As she turned to go, she saw Cain standing a few yards away, waiting. She sent Glitch on ahead and went to the tin man. He smirked as she came up beside him.

"I know what you're doing, kid," he informed her, lips twitching in amusement. For a moment, Dee feigned innocence. "I've lead men through battle myself."

She very much wanted him to expound on that statement, but now was not the time. She wondered if there ever would be. _Probably not._

"How am I doing?" she asked.

"Well, there's less hugging when I do it," he said dryly. She held back a giggle. "And absolutely no kissing."

She did laugh then, but sobered quickly. "I guess this is it," she said, with less finality than she felt, but more than she ought to have said out loud.

"Look," he said then, dead serious. "You may not be able to save your sister. So, if our plan doesn't work, you will try to get out of there, right?" She couldn't promise him that. If she failed, the witch would still be in control and nothing would change. When she didn't respond, he said, "This is the one time I'm not gonna be there to help."

She swallowed. _The one time I'm not gonna be there to help._ It sounded like a promise, but DeeDee knew all about promises. Knew what would happen once this was all over. "You've already helped me," she told him. He grabbed her upper arms then, as though he wanted to shake her.

"I'm serious," he said, blue eyes piercing. "Don't get up there and lose your head and forget about what's really important."

_Like what?_ she challenged silently. Out loud she said, "Family is what's important. She's my sister. She's all I have left."

He looked at her like he was about to disagree, but she did not want to hear any impulsive declarations of loyalty here at the end of the world. She thrust out her hand for him to shake.

"Good luck, Mr. Cain."

Now why had she called him that when Wyatt was on the tip of her tongue? He looked from her hand to her face with an expression of surprise and mild disbelief. He ignored her offered hand, then, and pulled her into a tight hug, pressing his lips to her hair line.

"You come back to us," he commanded. She could only nod, tears choking any words she might have uttered. After a moment, he let her go and stepped away. She sniffled and gave him a brave smile, then turned to head back to the encampment.

She hadn't made it two steps before he grabbed her arm again and spun her around. Before she could even look surprised he'd tangled the fingers of one hand in her hair, pulled her head back, and crushed his lips to hers. Where the kiss with Glitch had been all sweetness, Cain's was all heat. He pulled her against him, hand on the small of her back, pressing them together from chest to thighs. She gasped and he slipped his tongue passed her lips, boldly taking possession. He tasted like whiskey, hot and sweet, she thought, not even bothering to wonder where he had gotten whiskey. All she could do was cling to the front of his coat as her knees went weak.

Cruelly, it was over far too soon. He broke the kiss and held her close a moment more, before turning her within the circle of his arms and leading her back to the base. They had to go save the world.


	24. Showdown

**Oh! the big fight scene. Good versus evil! who will win? ... okay, you know who, but HOW? thats where you;re a little fuzzy. trust me.**

**PS: oooh, lots of reviews for the last chappy. the writer is pleased. No nerfing today.**

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There was a concussive blast and Dee knew that Jeb's men had blown the generators. Cain led the way around the perimeter to the back of the Tower. They slipped unseen into the huge pipe they had escaped through two days previous. Through the blackness that seemed to last longer than before, they finally made it into what they now knew was the Sunseeder room. Glitch and Raw vaulted silently out of the piece of machinery through which they had entered, then turned to help DeeDee down. The floors vibrated as Azkadellia's scientists started up the machine. Almost immediately an alarm began to sound.

"Shit," DeeDee hissed. Footsteps approached and the three ducked behind a turbine. The Long Coat double-timed it to his post, right in front of the bit of machinery that Cain was still inside. The tin man tossed his hat passed the guard, who was startled and whirled around just in time to catch the blonde's fist with his jaw. The Long Coat dropped like a stone and Glitch and Raw scurried out of hiding to roll him into the space beneath the open machinery.

Glitch dusted off Cain's hat as the man vaulted out of the machine. It was an odd time for DeeDee to notice that Cain was actually a bit taller than Glitch. She supposed it was the headcase's gangly arms and legs that made him appear taller than he really was. Cain accepted his hat and replaced it on his head. _Who does he think he is, Indiana Jones?_

"Raw, which way?" the tin man asked. The Viewer pointed up.

"Up one floor," he said. Glitch looked up at the ceiling as well. It had been years since he and his brain had been in the same room. She could not even begin to understand how that must feel. Cain checked his pistol, spinning the chambers. He did this whenever he was anxious about something, Dee realized.

"Alright," he said. "Let's do this."

She wanted to tell them good luck, but her throat was too dry to get the words out. She nodded to each. Cain caught her arm.

"Remember what I said," he ordered. She nodded again and he released her. She headed off on her own. She skulked behind boilers and turbines and machines she couldn't comprehend. It felt like it was taking way too long, By the time she made it across the room, it would be too late. But she finally reached the ladder that would lead her up to Azkadellia's main chamber. According to the plans the Resistance had been able to steal, that is. She hoped they were accurate.

Again, it felt like she was taking far too much time to reach her destination. Her arms and legs were burning horrible by the time she reached the trap door at the top of the ladder, but she ignored the pain. She unlatched the door and shoved upward. The trap swung open and hit the marble floor of the chamber with a loud slam. She wasn't surprising anyone, now, but she doubted the witch was unaware of her presence anyway.

There was no time to gather herself for this. She did not even pause as she crossed the room and pushed through the double doors that led to the balcony. Azkadellia stood in a shaft of eerie green light that shot straight up into the sky. DeeDee did not dare look up, knowing she would be petrified by what she saw as the Anti-Sunseeder did its job. The sorceress gave a pleased little smile as the younger princess moved to stand before her.

"Little sister," she said in greeting. "Surprised to see you… breathing."

"No you're not," Dee said back. "You knew I'd make it out of there. You counted on it. You wanted me to see you claim victory."

The witch with her sister's face gave her a self-satisfied smirk. "It is nice to have an audience," she said. "I deserved it, don't I? After waiting for so long."

"I'll give you that," Dee conceded. "Too bad for you, you picked a bad time to destroy the O.Z.."

"Oh?" Azkadellia said, amused. "Why is that?"

"I'm here," Dee answered, feeling sure of herself for the first time in her life. "You stole my sister, crone. And I'm taking her back."

The witch started to laugh. Dee focused her new found power into a thin mental spike. She sent the spike out, piercing the witch's barriers. She reached out with one goal, one thought, one perfect plea.

_Azkadellia._

"Dorothy!" her sister gasped, with her our mouth, her own voice for the first time in fifteen years, since that fated day in the cave. Dee took a step forward, but the witch broke her mental connection, snapping the bond like a twig. The sorceress waved her hand, in complete control of her sister once more, and Dee flew back like a leaf on the wind. Her feet caught the stone railing and she flipped in midair, screaming. She reached out blindly, shocked when her hands found purchase on a decorative ledge just below the balcony. She'd torn one fingernail almost completely off and it stung like mad. Her arms, already burning from the long climb up the ladder, throbbed with pain. _I'm going to die._ She would not be able to hold on for long and there were no footholds. She would soon fall down and down and there would be no river to save her. _It can't end like this!_

She could hear the thrumming of the Sunseeder begin to hiccup. The witch demanded to know why they were losing power. So, they had made it to the brain room. They were shutting down the machine. But she had failed, again. Tears streamed down her face. She would never see them again. Once she lost her grip. She'd fallen so many times in the O.Z., literally and figuratively. It was no wonder she had a phobia.

"_You never used to be afraid of heights."_ Ahamo's words came back to her. It suddenly struck her that she was not _now_ afraid. Not afraid of how high up she was, nor of the inevitable fall. She was not afraid at all. What made her stomach knot and her blood run like ice water was the thought of letting down her friends, her sister, the whole of the O.Z.. She'd promised Cain she would not forget what was important, and she would damn well keep that promise!

Dee gritted her teeth and, slowly, painfully, began to pull herself up to the ledge. She felt the dark light pulse within her, strengthening her arms. The machine powered back up, sending a chill down her spine, but she could not dwell on what might be happening in the brain room, so far below. The only way to help Glitch, Cain, and Raw was to help Azkadellia.

As she climbed back up to the balcony, she reached out to her sister with her mind and heart again. _Two little princesses dancing in a row. Spinning fast and freely on their little toes._ She reached for the railing, hauling herself up and over and fell in a heap onto the balcony floor.

"I can't do this alone," she whispered to her sister. She could feel Azkadellia reaching for her, felt the witch hold her back. Dee slowly got to her feet, wary of another psychic shove from the witch. She would not be able to catch herself this time. "She can't hold you, Kady," Dee told her sister. She reached out to Azkadellia. "Take my hand."

The sorceress's eyes had taken on a frantic, caged bird look. _"I can't."_ She heard her sister as clearly as if she'd spoken aloud. _You __**can, **_Dee responded firmly. Tears began to slip from her sister's eyes.

"Take my hand," Dee told her again. "Nothing can hurt us if we stay together, remember?"

Her sister's hand twitched once. It began to rise towards hers. Suddenly, Azkadellia's face twisted and became a grotesque version of itself.

"No!" the hag said in her true voice. "You're talking into the wind girl!"

"Kady," DeeDee said, her own voice steady and firm. "Take my hand."

"I'm scared," Azkadellia said, voice quavering.

"I know. I'm sorry I let go, Kady," she told her sister. "Take my hand and I'll never let go again, I promise."

In her mind Dee felt Azkadellia break free of the witch's hold, the elder sister's hand grasped her own. The hag roared in outrage. It felt like a tug of war, with Kady trapped between. DeeDee held on as Azkadellia's face twisted and distorted, the witch trying desperately to maintain her power over the princess.

"Let go!" DeeDee shouted, in a bizarre mirroring of the day in the cave, and gave a massive pull back. Azkadellia slipped from the light beam and they both fell to the balcony floor. She looked back, and the hag stood alone, as horrid as she recalled. She snarled at the sisters, sounding like a rabid beast.

"Have the little bitch. I care not," she barked. She turned her head skyward and exalted, "For the heavens do _my_ bidding!" She gasped and glared at Azkadellia, seeing that the emerald had remained with the girl. "Give me the emerald," she commanded. Azkadellia glanced at DeeDee before defiantly shaking her head no. The witch snarled again, eyes glowing firey red. She began to swell and grow and soon towered over the two kneeling girls. "Give me the emerald!" she roared so loudly it hurt to hear.

"Don't let go," Azkadellia told her sister. Dee took her other hand, gripping both tightly. The crone wailed in rage. Bolts of deadly red light shot from her hands. Dee cringed, but the light did not touch them. Azkadellia had thrown up a magical wall between them and the witch. The killer bolts of energy could not break through.

Then, the beam vanished. Her friends had pulled through and shut the machine down. The witch roared again, so loud Dee thought her ear drum may have actually ruptured, but she did not release her sister's hands.

"No!" the hag ranted. "No! Not after so long! It can't be!" She turned hateful eyes on the sisters and snarled, spittle spraying from her cracked lips. "The Outer Zone is still mine! And I'll content myself by destroying you!"

The beams intensified. Azkadellia's barrier bowed back under the strain.

"We can't block her forever!" DeeDee shouted. "We have to do something!"

"But what _can_ we do?" Azkadellia cried, hopelessly. Dee tried to think, her mind flashing faster than she could keep up with. The witch had been buried in that cave for hundreds of years and had not expired. Why had the ancients entombed her there, in Finaqua, which was a paradise? "_Magical waters… That's what Finaqua means in the language of the ancients," _Glitch's voice floated through her thoughts. Something about the waters of Finaqua must impede the witch's power, that's why she had been unable to escape. But what good would that do them now? The ancients would know how to stop the hag. Dorothy Gale would know, she thought, feeling it were true, though had no real basis in fact.

Dorothy Gale, the Original Slipper; first to travel to the O.Z. from the Other Side. Probably caught in a storm like her father, like herself. The tornado, which had so terrified her. Probably because she had been torn from her home in the O.Z. by such a storm. She gasped. A storm. Even as she thought it, she felt the power building inside her, so much it was frightening. Far away to the south, in Finaqua, the waters of a crystal blue lake began to churn.

Azkadellia's eyes widened. "What are you doing?" she demanded fearfully.

"Just concentrate, Kady," DeeDee told her sister.

"You're scaring me, Dot!" Azkadellia cried. Thick, dark clouds began to roll in, tumbling over each other as they came bearing down on the tower, bringing with them power and magic.

"Don't be afraid," Dee shouted, as the barrier bowed back farther. The hag was roaring, eyes flashing, hands curled into feral claws. "Nothing can hurt us if we stay together!"

Kady nodded and closed her eyes tight. Dee focused on the storm, pulling it towards them. Lightning flashed above, thunder cracking over the witch's bellowing. Wind lashed at the balcony, making trees far below bend and sway wildly. The clouds thickened and roiled sickeningly above, blotting out the twin sun eclipse. Then, came the eerie moaning, low at first, but increasing until it covered all other sounds.

The clouds fell to earth, swirling horribly as they went. The whirling winds left a deep scar in their wake as they approached the tower, the first twister in the history of the O.Z.. It had carried the waters of Finaqua to DeeDee and now, she let them go.

A single drop hit the hag's cheek and hissed like it had fallen on a griddle. The old crone shrieked and threw up her hands. The rain came in violent torrents, soaking the sisters in an instant. Where ever the waters fell on the witch, it hissed and steamed, she screamed horrible rattling screams of fear and pain as her flesh began to literally liquefy and drip away. Streams of blood, flesh, gore poured down her ghoulish frame, pooling around her feet. She fell to her knees, then forward onto all fours, gurgling and groaning. Her arms gave out, one pulled clear of its socket as she fell to the ground and gave her last death rattle.

When the last of the rain had fallen, Dee released the storm and it quickly faded and vanished. One might never have known it happened at all, save for the massive trench carved into the barren land surrounding the tower. And the puddle of rotted flesh at their feet.

"She… melted," Dee said, in utter disbelief. "She fucking melted."

Azkadellia could only nod, staring in horrified fascination at the pool of yuck.

"I gotta say," Dee remarked. "I did not see that coming."


	25. Aftermath

**Ding! Dong! The witch is dead! Which old witch? The nasty one with the bad breath. Oh, her. Sweet!**

**PS: there is no PS.**

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Azkadellia gave a broken cry and threw herself at DeeDee. The younger princess caught her sister and held her close. Kady laughed and cried simultaneously. "It's over!" she exclaimed. "It's really over."

"I'm so sorry, Kady," DeeDee said, crying as well. Azkadellia shook her head.

"It's not your fault," she told Dee. "I don't blame you. I never blamed you."

"Never?" DeeDee asked, unable to believe it. For fifteen years her sister had been trapped in her own body, watching the witch commit unspeakable acts of cruelty. Azkadellia took Dee's face in her hands and looked into her eyes. The elder princess's eyes shown a cloudy gray in the shadowed light of the ongoing eclipse; they were clear and sincere.

"Not for a second," she insisted. A weight lifted off Dee's chest, spilling more tears from her eyes.

"Mother!" Azkadellia gasped.

"Do you know where she is?"

Az nodded and pulled DeeDee back into the tower, lifting up her skirt and running out of the chamber and down the hall. She stopped short before a tall set of doors, her expression uncertain.

"The things I've done…" she worried aloud. DeeDee gently brushed a stray hair behind her sister's ear.

"It wasn't you," she said. "They know that." Azkadellia looked visibly comforted by this, but her eyes retained the fear. Dee lifted their joined hands and smiled. "Besides. I'm still with you."

Azkadellia gave her a watery smile and nodded with a sniffle. Dee pushed the door open and led her sister inside. Ahamo and the Queen were standing on a tiny balcony across the room, hands joined, watching the sky. When they heard the girls enter, both turned. Their mother's mouth fell open in shock, their father's split into a wide grin. He quickly crossed the room, arms out, intent on embracing his children. Azkadellia took a step back, bringing him up short. For a moment she looked like she might bolt, but instead launched herself into her father's arms.

He pressed his lips to her hair and swung her around, feet off the ground, as though she were still a child. Perhaps, to him, she was. He laughed tearfully and rained kisses on her face and hair. Dee watched with a lump in her throat.

"My beautiful little girl," he whispered, adoringly. He turned to DeeDee and held out a hand, beckoning her close. Azkadellia held hers out as well. Dee had never been one for group hugs, but if there was ever a day to make an exception, this was it. She joined them and found it was not nearly as unpleasant as she might have thought. She even enjoyed it a little, she conceded.

"Mother!" Azkadellia cried, with a choked sob. She pulled away from her father and sister and rushed for the Queen, who welcomed her with open arms.

"Oh, my Azkadellia. Is it really you?" she asked, smiling as she wept. Ahamo stood, arm around Dee's waist, watching the other two. When the Queen finally looked up at her younger daughter, Dee was oddly not surprised to see her gaze hold no adoration or even joy.

"DG?" her mother said, only puzzled. "You're alive."

DeeDee did not know what she might have said in response to that. Luckily she was saved from having to respond at all. The door flew open the rest of the way and Glitch came bounding in, followed by Raw and Cain. Her father's lips twitched in amusement as he released his youngest and swept his arm towards her friends, indicating she should go to them, dropping a kiss on the top of her head that warmed her heart in a place she'd not realized had been cold. He turned to Azkadellia and the Queen as DeeDee went to her friends.

Glitch and Raw both bowed grandly and even Cain removed his ubiquitous hat, making her blush in embarrassment. Glitch then darted forward and hugged her close, laughing with glee.

"We did it!" he shouted, smiling from ear to ear. He had barely slackened his grip when Raw pulled her away and lifted her off the ground with his embrace. The Viewer set her on her feet and ruffled her hair affectionately. She turned to Cain. He was smiling. Actually smiling. She hugged him as well.

Dee had been so focused on that first real smile that she had completely missed that something was wrong. Until he winced under her embrace. She pulled back and saw that her shirt was stained red.

"You're hurt!" she gasped. There was a hole in his coat, blood tinged the edges.

"Yeah," glitch said cheerfully. "He got shot."

"You got _shot_?!" she shouted in outrage. Cain's ears actually flushed pink as though he were embarrassed.

"It's nothing," he told her. She looked at him like he had just sprouted another head.

"Nothing?" she demanded loudly. "You're bleeding all over the place!"

She ignored his protestations and peeled back his coat so she could get a better look at his shoulder. The sleeve and most of the right side of his pale blue shirt were soaked with blood. She pulled the coat back into the place and pressed the heel of her palm to the wound to staunch the bleeding. He grunted in pain. "I need a doctor," she told her family.

It was Azkadellia who answered first. "The alchemists are on level four."

"Those creepy scientist guys?" DeeDee balked. "No, thank you."

"There must be someone who can patch him up down with the Resistance fighters," Glitch piped up.

"That's usin' your noodle," she said. Then realized, just because they had defeated the witch, did not mean her troops automatically gave up. "Kady, you have to call off the Long Coats!"

Her sister's mouth fell open. Apparently, she had forgotten all about the fight raging below as well. She nodded and hurried over to a small intercom set into the wall. She commanded all Long Coats to cease all fighting and law down their arms in surrender. Dee led Cain from the room, the tin man emitting little hisses and grunts of pain as they went. Glitch and Raw followed, along with a furry little boy Dee had never seen before.

"Serves you right," she admonished.

"How do you figure that?" he asked, incredulous.

"If you hadn't gone and gotten yourself shot, you wouldn't be in this mess," she told him. It all sounded very reasonable to her. "This is the second time, you know."

"That I've been shot?"

"Yes." He snorted.

"I've been shot more than twice, kiddo," he informed her. She glared at him in a way that said he should have kept that little fact to himself. At least he had the good grace to look apologetic. "I'll try not to do it again."

"Damn straight!" she barked.

At the base of the tower, the Resistance was rounding up the Long Coats into neat little groups for easy management. They found Jeb easily enough; he was standing on a cart giving orders. Dee marveled at the huge gash her twister had left on the landscape, guiltily realizing she had not though about people when she'd come up with her grand idea. Jeb assured her, however, that none of his men had been caught in the funnel and that it had actually caused the fighting to cease for a while.

"People tend to stop and take notice of a giant wall of wind and dirt coming at them," he told her. She was vastly relieved. He directed them towards the medical tent and one of the doctors had Cain patched up in no time.

The Long Coats were taken down into Azkadellia's prison cells in the bowels of the tower, which had been quickly emptied of their former occupants. Most of those people rushed off back to their homes and families. Several of the alchemists were also locked away below, though some were deemed trustworthy by Raw, who had taken up the task of reading Azkadellia's subordinates.

The daylight lasted for an incredibly long amount of time; the suns did not set until well after midnight. Through the Viewer, Ambrose indicated this was a temporary condition caused by the Sunseeder and would pass within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. DeeDee had no idea how the solar system in the O.Z. functioned, so she took his word for it sans explanation.

Night was inevitable and people need to sleep. Herself included. Azkadellia slept in a small bedroom adjoining their parents. Dee's bed chamber, a huge suite, was down the hall and around two corners. Glitch, Raw, and Cain each had their own rooms somewhere on the same level. Jeb and his men were invited to sleep within the tower, but declined, preferring to remain outside for the time being, in case of any stray Long Coats.

Dee lay in her bed, still in he same clothes she had been wearing since she fell into the O.Z., and stared at the ceiling. The tower was quiet. So mush so, it felt creepy. Or perhaps she was just uncomfortable being alone. She sighed in resignation and kicked back her covers, padding silently in her bare feet to the door. She didn't know how she would find any of the other's rooms, so that was out. Maybe she could find a library and at least have something to occupy her mind until dawn came.

She opened her door and almost shouted in surprise. Glitch was laying on his side on the floor before her threshold. Raw was sitting, his back to the wall opposite her door. Cain, the only one to have thought to bring a chair, was lounging to the left of the frame, his hat pulled over his eyes. She smiled tenderly at them.

"You could have knocked, you know," she said with a snort. Cain grunted and rose from his chair. Raw stood and stretched. Glitch rolled to his hands and knees and crawled passed her into the room. The other two followed in suit and she closed the door behind them.

Raw curled up on the chaise lounge that sat under one of the tall windows. He yawned mightily once and was still.

Cain dropped onto the sofa, kicking his boots off and resettling his hat over his eyes. He'd removed his coat and vest and wore a clean white shirt. His arm was in a sling and she had a suspicion his pistol was tucked away in it, since he no longer wore the gun belt.

Glitch, clad in only his pants and red and black striped shirt, had made his way, on all fours, to her bed and was now climbing into it. She shook her head, smiling softly, and slipped in after him. He snuggled down under the covers and pulled her close, sighing in contentment. It occurred to her that this might be a highly inappropriate sleeping arrangement for a princess. She really couldn't care less.

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**PS: okay, i lied. there is a PS. this is NOT the last chapter. What? you think they are gonna just jump right into the fornication? child please! plus.. there's other stuff that needs to be resolved. Sheesh. haven't you been paying attention?**


	26. Life Goes On

**Even in a magical wonderland, it ain't all puppy dogs and sunshine, kiddies.**

**ps: NO, THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER EITHER! when it;s the last chapter, you'll know.**

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Dee sat in in her suite in Azkadellia's tower, bored out of her mind and rather lonely. The last two months had passed in a blur of activity as Azkadellia abdicated the throne to her mother and the Queen, who, incidentally, was named Illiancara, had taken her place. Most of the people were satisfied with the explanation that the princess turned dictator had been possessed by a legendary evil. Things like that were known to happen in the O.Z..

DeeDee had gotten to know her father some and her sister more. In fact, the person she saw most these days was Azkadellia, who had changed drastically. Gone were the extravagant dresses and intricate hair styles. The elder sister had gotten her hair cut to about shoulder length, and pulled it back simply, as she had when a child. She wore simple, elegant dresses in soft colors that complimented her multi-hued eyes. Instead of blood reds and rich black, her make up was done in soft pinks and smoky grays. Dee thought she looked more beautiful than ever. Az was having trouble dealing with her time under the witch, as was to be expected, but she was coping admirably. She even smiled and laughed on occasion.

Dee did not have much contact with her mother, which appeared to suit both parties just fine. She puzzled over why her mother had always treated her differently than Azkadellia, but she had. This she knew from the memories of her childhood that drifted back to her daily. For some reason, she had always been more of a burden to her mother than a joy. Her father had not acted this way, he loved both his children equally, but when Illiancara looked at her younger daughter, she saw something wrong. Dee only wished she knew what it was.

With Azkadellia and her parent's occupied repairing a fractured kingdom, Dee found herself alone a good deal of the time. She had virtually no knowledge of the O.Z. as a whole, as would be more of a hindrance than a help. Her friends had each found something to occupy their time.

Cain was busy helping the Resistance and renewing old bonds with his son. They had gone back for Zero, as planned, and the man had gone quite mad after only a week in the iron suit. He was taken away to a little padded room to spend out the rest of his days. DeeDee had no even known the O.Z. had little padded rooms.

Raw was in command of a small army of Viewers. They were charged with the task of reading all those who had worked under Azkadellia to find who deserved to be punished and who could still be trusted. The young, furry boy had turned out to be Kalm, a young Viewer who had been imprisoned by Azkadellia with his family years before. Lylo was the child's grandfather, his last living relative. Raw had taken the boy under his wing and was, apparently, raising him like his own son.

Queen Illiancara was ever so pleased to have her faithful advisor back, even in his diminished capacity. The reimplantment operation had been postponed. Not because it was a difficult procedure, but because it was proving difficult to find alchemists skilled enough to perform it and also trustworthy enough to be allowed to. Glitch, for his part, was completely overjoyed to feel useful, like his old self. He followed the Queen around like a dedicated puppy. Dee imagined he might sit up a beg if Illiancara asked, so long as she called him Ambrose when she did.

There was a knock at her door. She called that it was open and her father entered. She smiled. She was growing quite fond of Ahamo and found that Azkadellia had been right, he was an old romantic. He would take time each day to enjoy a hobby he had long laid by, in the time the witch had reigned: painting. He had given her a painting he had done of her twister. He'd captured the raw power of the storm on the canvas and she had been properly impressed. It sat on the mantel above the fireplace in her room. They had not had it hung because the family would soon relocate to their palace just beyond Central City.

He'd told her of her childhood, filling in gaps in her memory with amusing stories. He told her that, as a child, he had encouraged her and Azkadellia to express themselves through art.

"You never took to it though," he'd said with a chuckle. "Oh, you'd draw me pictures of our family, of my balloon. You always drew the balloon over a big rainbow. Every time." He'd smiled softly at her when he said that. "Your real talent was with words. You could come up with these amazing stories, right out of thin air." He'd winked. "Though I think that was Ambrose's influence. When Azkadellia was busy with her lessons, he and you would read books and imagine adventures."

Now, her father was grinning and looked excited. "I've got some good news for you, little girl," he said brightly. "Our boy Ambrose is going to get his brain back."

Dee's eyes widened. "When?" she asked, nearly bouncing in her seat. Glitch had waited so long for this.

"Two hours," Ahamo said. She blinked.

"That soon?"

He grinned. "Your mother's got everyone rushing around like crazy to get it all ready. Figures he's waited long enough, don't you?"

She nodded. She could barely sit still. "Do Cain and Raw know? Are they coming?"

"Sent the call out myself," he assured her. "They'll be here in time."

The day just kept getting better and better. She had not seen Raw in almost a week, Cain longer than that. And, while Glitch crept into her bed to snuggle every night, he was always gone by the time she awoke, fawning around after her mother all day. She didn't blame any of her friends for drifting away, they had their own lives to get back to or start over. She'd known it would happen, anyway, hadn't she?

"What's that look for?" Ahamo asked. Her brow furrowed in question. "You just looked sad for a moment there."

She shrugged, the corner of her mouth quirking upward in a rueful smile. "I just miss them, that's all," she said. He hugged her, as he was often wont to do, and she let him. It seemed to make him happy. She hated to admit that it was actually a bit of a comfort as well.

"They've just gotten caught up in all the hullabaloo around here the last couple months," her father said. She smiled at his word choice. "When things calm down, it'll get back to normal."

The problem was, she didn't know what normal was. And, where her friends were concerned, she certainly wasn't part of their normal. She gave her father a smile, though, because she did not want him to see how sad she was. It would only make him feel bad. She laughed inside at herself. Old habits die hard, she thought, remembering her mother, the robot, and how she had always kept things form her so she would not worry.

"And, now that I know you won't be able to concentrate for the next two hours, how about a some cards? I might actually be able to win with you distracted," he said with a sly wink. He's managed to draw a real smile from her with that absurd statement. The man was terrible at all games, cards or otherwise. She could have beaten him with half her brain tied behind her back.

The next hour and fifteen minutes moved at a snail's pace. No, whatever the creature moved at that pace would ride on the back of a snail yelling, "Weeee!". They were seated at a table in the tower's recreation room, playing some O.Z. card game that resembled Old Maid, but with betting involved. DeeDee only understood half the rules, but she still managed to wipe the floor with her father. She occasionally wondered if he were faking it, being so bad. Azkadellia had joined them and had won the last four hands in a row. DeeDee longed for a nice game of Uno.

The door to the recreation room opened and Cain strode in, looking dapper in his new hat and coat, both a shade of not quite black. She hopped up from her chair, completely forgetting her plan to be aloof around him and Raw, and rushed into his waiting arms. She felt a lump in her throat, but refused to cry here in front of her father, sister, and Cain. Especially Cain. She swallowed the lump.

"I missed you," she told him, trying to sound unperturbed. He gave her a little extra squeeze.

"Me, too, kiddo," he said. She wasn't sure she believed him, but decided it was nice of him to say, anyway.

"Mr. Cain," Ahamo waved from the table, still holding his hand of cards. "We are playing Doozers, care to sit a hand?"

Cain smiled. Dee never tired of seeing that smile. He removed his hat and coat and tossed them on a nearby chair, then joined the game. Azkadellia beat him out in the next hand as well. Raw arrived two minutes before Glitch was scheduled to go in for the operation. Dee and Cain had been on their way down the hall to where the operating room had been set up, not far from the recreation room, so people could remained occupied while they waited. Raw had almost knocked her over running to make it in time. They shared a quick hug and then continued down the hall.

"-ave to wait!" Glitch was saying as they entered. He was pushing away the hands of the Queen and an alchemist, who were apparently trying to get him ready for the procedure. His eyes lit up when he saw his friends. "Hey! You made it!" he exclaimed, bounding across the room. He wrapped Cain in a big hug, causing the blonde to chuckle indulgently.

"I missed you, too, Glitch," he said dryly. Raw snorted with laughter behind his hand. The headcase latched on to the Viewer next. DeeDee shook her head affectionately. Then, Glitch grabbed ahold of her, drawing a surprised squeak.

"You saw me this morning!" she protested. Which was true, he had seen her, asleep, this morning even though she had not seen him.

"I'm just glad you came," he told her. She smiled.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," she assured him. The Queen took his arm then.

"I'm afraid you'll have to leave, now," she said, dismissively. Cain and Raw moved towards the door, but Dee stayed put for a moment more. She did not acknowledge her mother, but looked only at Glitch.

"I'll be here when you get out," she promised. He smiled and nodded. Only then did she take her leave. Dee did not know what had caused her to behave that way. Perhaps it was the possessive way her mother had held Glitch's arm, as though she were claiming him as her property.

The operation would take two hours, Ahamo had said. Dee tried to focus on the cards and the others' conversations. At the two and a half hour mark, she gave up trying to look calm and sat on the couch, staring at the clock and biting her nails. At three hours she was pacing back and forth before the door to the operating room. Just before the start of hour five, she warned Cain he might have to hold her back from forcing her way into the room. That was when her mother opened the door and motioned them all (including Azkadellia and Ahamo) inside.

Glitch was laying on the bed, paler than usual. Which, for Glitch, was saying a lot. His head was wrapped in a massive white bandage from the eyebrows up. It looked like a turban. The alchemists were cleaning up.

"Why did it take so long?" Dee demanded. Cain and Ahamo both reached for her, the same one, at the same time. She stepped forward, preventing either of them from trying to silence her.

"There were complications after so long a separation," Illiancara said. "But the operation was a complete success. We'll have our Ambrose back just as soon as he wakes up."

"And how long will that take?" DeeDee pushed. Her mother's lips tightened in what Dee assumed was annoyance.

"A few hours, I suppose," she said dismissively. "We will all be notified when he awakens. Come."

She moved towards the door, as if to usher everyone out. Dee stood her ground.

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere," she told her mother firmly. Illiancara turned to face her. For an instant Dee could see how irritated she was that her daughter, Dee, was disobeying her. Then, she smiled in a serene, mother-knows-best kind of way.

"He needs his rest, DG," her mother said, firmly. Dee did not bat an eyelash.

"I said, I was staying, mother," she repeated. The Queen's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, but she continued smiling and led the others from the room. Cain was looking at her, blue eyes wide in a look that bordered on shock, but he allowed himself to be swept from the room.

Dee sat on the side of Glitch's bed and caressed his hand, absently. How dare her mother try to shoo her out of the room as though she were a child, an intruder! Glitch was her friend. When he woke up he would be disoriented and probably in pain, she wanted him to see a familiar face. And, she admitted, she did not want it to be her mother's.

He didn't open his eyes for another hour. She understood that the reimplantment would require very little recovery time, but it still boggled her mind to think he would be up and around after massive brain surgery in an hour. He stirred at first and licked his lips. Dee poured him a glass of water from the carafe on the bedside table.

"Thirsty?" she asked, softly. He nodded, eyes still closed. She pressed the glass to his lips and gave him little swallows. It reminded her of when they'd met Cain. He made a little sound of appreciation and she placed the glass on the table. "How do you feel?"

Her friend's brows furrowed a moment. Then, he spoke, in a voice that was almost, but not entirely unlike his own. "My head aches, but I imagine that is to be expected," he said. He opened his eyes and they were as clear and lucid as ever she'd seen them. "Hello. Have we met?"

Her jaw dropped in shock and he smiled mischievously. "You ass!" she accused, but could not hold back her smile.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't resist," he admitted. She forgave him.

"So, aside from the aching, how do you feel?"

He gave her a soft smile. "It's good to be whole again," he told her, sounding massively relieved. She patted his hand.

"I'll go tell the others you're awake," Dee said, but he caught her fingers lightly when she went to stand.

"Not yet," he requested. "Just sit with me for a few minutes, while I remember."

"Remember what?" she could not help but ask. He gave a satisfied sigh and smiled.

"Everything."

And, so she sat with him, alone, holding his hand for a good twenty minutes before he would allow her to call in anyone else. When he finally told her he was ready, she stood, but he held her hand a moment longer. He looked at her, eyes like warm toffee, and kissed her fingertips.

When the alchemists finally were fed up with everyone in Glitch's room and ejected them all later that night, Glitch gave her that same warm look as she left.

She did not see him again for another month and he had stopped creeping into her bed. Cain and Raw went back to their respective duties, once more. Dee felt more alone than she ever had before.


	27. This Princess Has Balls

**Here our heroine decides to stop being a loser and get her ass in gear.**

**PS: i know it keeps getting longer, but there's only a few chappies left. i promise.**

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"What?"

DeeDee, her mother, and Azkadellia had been discussing the family's return to the Central City Palace when the Queen had sprung an unwelcome surprise on her daughters. To be totally accurate, it was only unwelcome to DeeDee. Azkadellia seemed ecstatic over the prospect.

"A ball," Illiancara repeated. A ball, as in, a huge party that required socializing, dancing, and beautiful dresses. These were all the reasons Azkadellia was excited, and all the reasons Dee hated the idea. "And, yes," the Queen continued, reading her daughter's mind (though, not literally). "You will be required to attend."

Dee opened her mouth to protest, but an advisor chose that moment to intrude, spouting apologies. The younger princess took the advantage of the interruption, using it as an opportunity to escape into the hallway. Azkadellia followed after her.

"Why don't you want to have a ball?" she asked, puzzled.

"It's just not for me," Dee told her. Azkadellia apparently found that answer completely ludicrous.

"But the music!" she insisted. "The food!"

Dee scoffed. "I can barely identify half the things I've eaten in the O.Z., Kady, and the rest are a mystery. I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a confection and wax fruit around here."

Her sister laughed. Dee had not intended to make her do so, but was pleased none the less. She felt Azkadellia should always be laughing, or at least smiling, and did her best to make it so. The elder sister's expression turned sly.

"Think of all the handsome young men you'll get to dance with," she cajoled. Dee rolled her eyes.

"Okay, two things wrong with that. One, I don't want to dance with any handsome young men," she said. Az looked at her shrewdly.

"No, I suppose not," she said, thoughtfully. "Not any _young_ men, anyway." Dee ground her teeth together, flushing at her sister's insinuation. "They'll be there, you know," Kady said, now sincere.

"I don't want to dance with _anyone_, Kady, young or old," Dee insisted, firmly. "And even if I _did_, I can't."

This concept left her sister bewildered. "Why not?"

"Because, I can't dance. Not 'I don't dance', I _can't_." Dee made a cutting motion with her hands as though that were the end of the discussion. Azkadellia ignored her.

"You can so dance," the elder sister insisted. "I remember."

Dee huffed. "That was a long time ago. I don't know how anymore."

Az found this unacceptable. "Not even a _waltz_?"

Dee pursed her lips. _Damn._ She reluctantly admitted to having the ability to waltz. "But that's _barely_ a dance, so it doesn't count."

"So you _can_ dance," Azkadellia said triumphantly. Dee gave her a look of exasperation and her sister relented. "Fine, so don't dance. Just mingle."

"Mingle?" DeeDee balked. "At my last count there will be five people there that I know and do not heartily dislike," she said. She often said "heartily dislike" in place of "hate", though she could never remember where she'd picked up the habit. Azkadellia chose not to mention that Dee's count was shy one Queen.

"So, invite someone," she said, as though it were the obvious solution.

"What?"

Az grinned at her sister's cluelessness. "The ball is being thrown in _your_ honor, silly Dot," she told Dee affectionately. "You defeated the witch and saved the O.Z.. You're a national hero!"

Dee's face burned and knew she was blushing deeply. She never thought of what happened that way. She tried to talk about the witch as little as possible, since the memories were rather unpleasant for her. Also, with only her family and, occasionally, her friends to speak to, she had trouble believing others actually felt that way about her. Azkadellia took her hands, brining them to a halt in the corridor.

"Not to mention," she went on. "You're a princess. A _real_ princess, Dot. You've got a little pull around here. It's time you start realizing that."

DeeDee took her sister's words to heart. She decided to stop sitting around the tower, waiting for people to come see her and feeling sorry for herself. Despite her insane first week in the O.Z., the world did not revolve around her. She decided it was time to get off her ass, rejoin it, and started putting her new clout to good use. The first thing she did was find Glitch.

The head advisor had cloistered himself away in a lab on a lower level of the tower. No one knew what he was working on, day and night, but, before the witch had stolen the throne, he'd always been working on something, so they let him be. Dee found the lab and burst in without so much as a knock. The former head case looked up from the table where he sat, mouth agape in shock.

Dee took a moment to take in the differences in her friend. Glitch worse a spotless white shirt and a navy vest with shiny silver buttons. A pair of welder's goggles rested on his forehead. There were shadows under his eyes that marked a lack of sleep. His hands were smudged with grease and grim had collected under his fingernails; fingernails that were otherwise perfectly manicured. She almost smiled to see that he'd kept his hair in the crazy dread do.

"I need an advisor," she told him, keeping her words short and authoritative. He blinked at her for a moment, not answering. "I'm a princess and I need an advisor," she repeated, crossing her arms.

"Of course, your highness," he said, lowering his eyes in deference. She scowled.

"Don't call me that," she commanded.

"But, you just reminded me that you are a princess," he said, not looking up. She could have sworn he was trying not to smile.

"I've always been a princess, Glitch," she reminded him. His expression immediately sobered.

"I'm not Glitch, anymore, DeeDee," he said, sounding sorry for the fact. "I'm Ambrose, now."

She narrowed her eyes. "Oh, really?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "And I have work to do, so, if you'll excuse me."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Did you just _dismiss _me?" she asked, with amused surprise. He cringed a little, realizing that that was exactly what he'd done. "Didn't we just establish that I am a princess?"

"I'm sorry, your-"

"Don't!" she barked, loud and firm. She moved to stand right before his work table. "And don't try to feed me this Ambrose bullshit either. I was Dorothy to Ambrose, not DeeDee."

He gasped, only now catching his slip up. She bent forward, setting her palms on the table and leaning very close. Their faces were only inches apart now and she was looking directly into his eyes. He swallowed hard, but when he would have spoken she spun away, heading back out the door. "Like I said, I need an advisor. You've got one hour," she told him as she left. Just before she shut the door, she paused and added. "You'll _always_ be Glitch to me."

She called him Ambrose, though, as she outlined her plans. He would be the backbone of anything she wanted to do, as a princess, as she had no idea, really, _how _to get any of it done. She had all manner of useful pursuits in mind, but the first thing she did was completely useless and completely selfish. She had Ambrose handle the details. Which he did, quickly and efficiently. And so, on a bright sunny day, less than twenty four hours later, DeeDee was standing beside Ambrose and Raw as the charges were set and the witch's cave was blasted out of existence.

Unlike Cain and Ambrose, Raw came to see her on a regular basis. She'd even gotten to know young Kalm. He'd begun to think of her as an aunt of sorts. Dee offered Raw a position under her employ. Apparently, the royals were allowed their own staff. Who knew? He had been in charge of the sorting of Azkadellia's people in an unofficial capacity and this would make it official. He accepted, for which Dee was eternally grateful, and was titled Overseer. The first in O.Z. history. She'd not know what she would do if he declined, for it also guaranteed that where ever she traveled in the realm, he would be there. That was a huge comfort. It was not an ornamental title. Raw was granted additional powers and responsibilities, and also acted as Dee's royal ambassador to the Viewer Enclave. Raw's people had suffered greatly under Azkadellia and she, DeeDee, meant to put this right. One step at a time.

For her next project, DeeDee needed Cain. Instead of summoning him to the tower, as a royal would a subject, she went to him, where he worked along side his son with the Reconstruction (formerly Resistance). She wanted to commission a memorial for the Mystic Man. A monument to stand somewhere in Central City. She chose Cain because he knew the city well and had been on the Mystic Man's protection detail for years, so knew the man well, too. The way he looked at her when she told him her plan (part affection, part pride) forced her to admit to herself that his knowledge of the subject and location of her memorial was only most of the reason she'd chosen him.

After securing Cain's commitment to her project, Dee had handed Jeb a large ivory envelope. He'd given her a puzzled look that so reminded her of his father. After opening it, his eyebrows soared.

"What?" was the only word he'd managed to get out. He'd tried to bow, then, but DeeDee waylaid him.

"Don't do that, please," she said, catching his shoulder before he could go down far enough to call it a proper bow. Cain's face showed amusement and question.

"What did you do to him?" he asked, near laughter.

"Personally invited him to my ball," she told him, haughtily. Then looked down her nose at the tin man. "You'll have to wait to get yours in the mail." He'd laughed, actually laughed. Dee loved the sound.

Her last project before the ball was a grand undertaking. So grand, in fact, Ambrose had repeatedly tried to talk her out of it. But she was determined and he had no choice but to help her. She traveled, under guard, to the fields of the papay and used her magic to bring the trees back to life. One by one. It was long, arduous work.

Ambrose insisted on staying by her side every moment she spent in the fields. He kept a close eye on her, but she refused to take as many breaks as he wanted her to; as many as she probably should have. They both knew she was stubborn and repeatedly lied to him about how drained she truly was. After she'd passed out from the strain one afternoon, he'd enlisted Raw to help him monitor her as she worked. More than once, they'd had to physically pull her away from a tree to keep her from over-exhausting herself.

As dedicated as she was and even though Azkadellia helped when she could, the fields were not nearly done by the date of the ball. Dee was angry with herself, despite the fact that the papay were, according to Raw, elated that any of their trees were blossoming again. Protests and reminders that she was a princess and they merely her subjects were ignored, as Raw and Ambrose dragged her away to the Central City Palace; to the ball where all the eyes in the realm would be on her once again. It was worse than facing the witch, she decided.


	28. The Men in Her Life

**In which ALOT of stuff goes down. **

**PS: LOTS of feedback. im not kidding. do you know how HARD this was to write? you people damned well better appreciate what i do for you.**

**PPS: http://www.khm.at/system2E.html?/staticE/page330.html ignore the sword. this will make sense later.**

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"You look stunning," Ahamo said, _again_. It still managed to make her blush. She had to admit, she did look quite fetching, even if she felt like it was Halloween.

Her gown as a deep, shimmering blue that complimented her black hair and milky skin and also brought out her eyes. The skirt was not nearly as poofy as she'd feared, for which she was exceedingly grateful. She felt the V-neck line was a little too revealing, but Ahamo had disagreed and if her _father_ thought it was modest enough, she would just have to trust it. The stylist had wanted to put her hair up in an intricate mass of curls atop her head, she's wanted to leave it down and plain. They'd compromised and some of her black tresses had been pulled up, while the rest fell about her shoulders in soft curls. Her father had just finished fastening a lovely, simple sapphire necklace (one, small teardrop shaped stone on a thin silver chain), his gift, around her neck.

A knock sounded at the door and DeeDee scowled at the messenger who peered in to announce that the Queen was waiting. Ahamo touched her cheek gently.

"I wish you two weren't always at loggerheads," he told her sadly.

"We aren't always. Sometimes we are in different parts of the realm," she told him optimistically. The fact of the matter was, they were always butting heads. It had gotten worse when DeeDee commandeered Ambrose to help her. The Queen had offered her another advisor, then tried to force one on her. DeeDee had not backed down. Privately, she was sure Illiancara had tried to convince Ambrose to relinquish his tasks to someone else, but he had never mentioned it to Dee.

Ahamo sighed, still unhappy about the mother-daughter situation. He really was an old romantic and just wanted them to be a big happy family. _Fat chance_. She smoothed down the lapels of his suit jacket, smiling over how ridiculous he looked. The suit was fine, classic black with a pale blue vest and tie to match his eyes. It was the fuzzy mutton chops that made her giggle. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Dee had to admit, it eased an old ache to have a loving father. He turned to go. At the door he turned back.

"Have I mentioned how stunning you look?" he asked. She smiled and shook her head.

"Once or twice," she told him. He grinned and then was gone, off to escort her mother, the Queen down to the ball. DeeDee had been shocked and angry to find out that her father, while married to the Queen, was not, in fact, King. Illiancara had married him, but had never entrusted him with even partial rule over her kingdom. DeeDee could not help but feel something was fundamentally wrong with this.

There was another knock at her door and another messenger told her it was time for her to meet her escort and be announced. Dee squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and tried to remember Cain's words to her the night before.

Dee had been up far too late, wandering the halls of the palace. It was by pure chance her path fell across Cain's as he headed up to his room. He'd been kept at the memorial headquarters late working out some detail or another and was just getting in. The tin man had been given quarters, since he was, technically, part of her staff now. He could have stayed in the city, but he said the food and beds were better in the palace. When he saw her, he'd stopped short, grinning in amusement over her sleepwear - too big men's striped pajamas.

"Hey, kid," he'd said. "What are you still doing up?"

She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep."

"Bad dreams?" he asked with a knowing expression. How he knew she'd been having nightmares, she could only guess. She shook her head.

"Not tonight, just nerves," she'd admitted. His brow furrowed and eyes narrowed in question.

"You're not nervous about tomorrow, are you?" he'd asked with a hint of incredulity. She'd blushed then, embarrassed by her own emotional weakness. She'd muttered a goodnight and started back to her room.

"Kid, wait," he'd called softly, coming after her. She stopped and turned back to him, but kept her eyes on the wallpaper. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad."

"I'm fine," she lied.

"No, look. It just surprised me. You've got more guts than anyone I know," he'd told her. The compliment made her feel all warm inside, but his disbelief was tempering it. "It's hard for me to believe a bunch of stuffed shirts could give you the shivers."

"They don't," she insisted. "It's just… I'm going to be on display in front of the whole O.Z.. Bloodline and heroics aside, I'm nothing special. I'm no princess. I'm worried about what's gonna happen when I don't live up to everyone's expectations."

"Hey," he'd said, gruffly, catching her chin and forcing her gaze to his. "The only person's expectations you have to live up to are mine." He'd paused, his lips quirking into a half smile. "And to a lesser extent Raw's and Ambrose's." She'd looked quizzical, tilting her head as much as she could with him grasping her chin. "Their expectations are lower than mine," he'd said with a wink. She'd giggled then, greatly relieved, and tugged his hand away from her chin.

"Ass," she'd accused on a whisper. He grinned, then shooed her off to bed.

Raw waited for her at the top of the stairs where the hall ended. The stairs led down into the grand foyer of the palace. From there, they would enter through the great double doors which stood open, to the ballroom. Her furry friend was looking primped and puffed up with pride like a peacock. His fur had been washed and combed until it gleamed, the top of his head brushed back. The fur on his chin had been braided and secured with three gleaming silver beads. He wore a lovely, flowing robe that brushed the ground when he moved. It was completely open down the front; rich purple with black trim. About his shoulders he wore a white stole, covered in beautiful silver runes of some kind. He beamed at her.

"DeeDee beautiful," he said. She blushed again. She hoped everyone didn't keep saying that. He offered her his arm and she accepted. They descended the stairs and waited just outside the doors to be announced.

"Escorted by Overseer Raw, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Dorothy Gale!" boomed out the announcer. DeeDee pulled back her shoulders and lifted her chin. She only had to live up to the expectations of three people, she reminded herself. If only they hadn't been the three most important people in her life. Inside the ball room, she was greeted by thunderous applause. Raw led her down the red carpet and towards the dais where the Queen and Ahamo were already seated. Azkadellia sat beside her mother to the left, Ahamo on the right. The seat immediately beside Azkadellia was empty. She could only assume it was Ambrose's. Three of the seats beside Ahamo were unoccupied. The others belonged to Jeb Cain and the two Nurture Units. The young fighter stood behind his seat at present, showing respect for the princess. Dee knew the others were reserved for her, as yet, absent guests. She smiled broadly, eagerly anticipating their arrival. DeeDee and Raw took their seats and the festivities continued.

Almost immediately the conductor announced the waltz and Ahamo popped to his feet. He offered Dee his hand and she had no choice but to waltz with him, as Azkadellia had told everyone it was the only dance she knew how to perform. DeeDee felt an affectionate sort of disdain for her father at this moment. The first dance of her first ball with her father? _What a cliché._ It was fun, she had to admit. Twirling around the room, all the people dressed beautifully in bright colors. When the dance was over, Ahamo bowed over her hand and Dee rolled her eyes, but was still smiling. They took their seats and enjoyed some of the banquet. The food was delicious, even if she had no idea what it was.

The next waltz that played, Raw had the honor of being her partner. It was a bit surreal, dancing the waltz with a Wookie, but that was fine. She really was having a wonderful time. Azkadellia had been right. Azkadellia was also dancing - with Jeb Cain. Dee was so happy for her sister, her eyes got misty. Raw smiled.

"Azkadellia happy," he told her. She nodded. She knew. A sudden commotion at the double doors to the ballroom caught her attention and gave her a moment's notice that her last guests had arrived. She looked towards the dais. Her mother looked appalled. DeeDee grinned up at Raw and laughed. He joined in. She hurried over to the entrance to greet her guests just as the announcer spoke up.

"Mister Antoine Demilo and Ms. Carmine Demilo!"

Antoine strutted into the ballroom, his mother on one arm, as though he were the guest of honor. She had dressed for the occasion, forgoing the chorus girl makeup and dress for a more elegant burgundy gown (lacking the poofy skirt) and subtle eye shadow and lip color. Her son had followed in suit. Still looking like a ringmaster, Antoine's red coat was clean and new, adorned with gold tassels and shiny brass buttons, black pants freshly pressed. He'd trimmed his moustache and had his hair rebraided. He looked sharp.

When DeeDee hurried to greet him, he gave her that lecherous wink again and when she went to shake his hand, he bowed over hers like an aristocratic rake. She laughed.

"I'm so glad you made it," she told him. He grinned.

"You clean up real good, cupcake," he told her. She blushed over the compliment, the same as she had Raw's and her father's.

"Not so bad yourself, Demilo," she said, dryly. "You got a pleasant stink comin' off ya."

He threw back his head and barked with laughter. His cologne was quite pleasant, actually. He bowed again and gestured towards the dance floor. The waltz had not ended yet. Raw smiled and took Ms. Demilo's hand and led her out onto the floor. DeeDee found that Antoine was a fine dancer, his movements might even be called graceful.

"Did you get the shoes?" she asked.

"Oh, I got them," he grinned. She had sent him twenty pairs of shoes to make up for the ruby slippers she had borrowed, stolen, and ruined. He winked. "Daisy was very appreciative."

"I have something for you," Dee told him. She reached down to her waist and removed the pin she had stick there earlier in the night. It was a small stylized eye done in shining silver, over an elegantly scripted D. She pressed it into his hand. She'd given identical pins to her surrogate mother and Jeb Cain. "This marks you as an Official Friend to the Crown," she said. It was something she'd devised all on her own, as a way of thanking those who had helped her so much in her life. Antoine had helped them sneak into the city, given them disguises and means to see the Mystic Man, and then his business, home, and only means of transport (all in one), at his own peril. So, he deserved it as much as anyone.

His eyes rounded like saucers. "It's not a get out of jail free card," she told him. "But if you _do_ get into trouble, I'll find out about it. And maybe I'll lend a hand." For once the funny little man was speechless. The dance ended and Demilo, sniffling suspiciously, went to collect his mother. DeeDee was heading back to the dais when the announcer spoke.

"His excellency, High Advisor Ambrose Eglantine!"

_Eglantine?_ Dee turned to the door and saw him. Ambrose was looking over the crush, searching for something. Her mouth fell open as she took in his appearance. He was in formal dress, black slacks and a beautiful, tailed, dress coat of black, with gold leaf designs embroidered down the chest, at the cuffs, and around the high collar. When his eyes fell on her, she realized it was she he was searching for. He made a bee-line for her.

When he reached the place she stood, he swept one arm over his middle, the other behind his back in a grand formal bow. When he straightened, he was looking at her as though they were alone in the room, eyes like warm toffee once more. He held out his hand, palm up.

"May I have this dance?" he asked. Her breath hitched in her throat. She placed her hand in his and he led her to the very middle of the floor. People actually cleared out of the way, leaving a large empty space at the center of the room. It was then an actual thought finally entered her mind.

"I can't," she told him, flushing. "I can only waltz."

He smiled slowly and stepped in to her. He placed her hand on his shoulder and took her other, his free hand rested firmly on her hip, pulling them closer than was strictly necessary.

"But the waltz just ended," she hissed, feeling the heat in her face that wasn't totally from embarrassment. He only smiled. He released her hip a moment and waved towards the orchestra, then replaced his hand. A moment later she heard the trumpets play a familiar string of notes. Her mouth fell open again and his smile deepened. Skipping the lengthy harp solo, the orchestra swept into the Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite, and Ambrose swept DeeDee across the floor.

It was like being inside a dream. She could feel the heat of her dance partner's body, even through the layers of clothes they both wore. He never took his eyes from hers as he directed them unerringly around the floor.

"If you're wondering about the music," Ambrose said, cordially. "I spoke to your mother in Milltown. She said it was your favorite piece of classical music. Lucky for me, it was a waltz."

"It's wonderful," she told him, breathlessly.

"I know I haven't been acting myself the last few months," he told her. "But I haven't really been myself. At first, I was so overjoyed to be back in the Queen's service, I forgot about everything else. I'm sorry." She started to speak, but he stopped her. "Please, let me finish before you say anything." She nodded. For a moment he only gazed at her with obvious affection.

"After the procedure, when I awoke, I was both Glitch and Ambrose, but I had not learned what that meant yet. I behaved in a way I should not have. Once I realized my error, I cut myself off from you while I worked out my thoughts and feelings. Ambrose saw you as the child he'd known and cared for. To Glitch you were the friend he adored.

"Glitch's feelings were not platonic, DeeDee, but he lacked the knowledge to act on them, he could only react. He knew he wanted to kiss you, to touch you, he just did not know how or why. Ambrose knew why."

DeeDee's stomach dipped and her heart began to race. Everywhere their bodies touched, fabric or no, began to tingle.

"I hid myself away in that lab, hoping I could _formulate_ my way into understanding what it was I felt for you, should feel for you. And then you barged in and challenged me with your demands. And, now I know."

His eyes had darkened to a rich cinnamon color and were positively smoldering. He leaned in so close his lips almost brushed her ear as he whispered, "And now, you know." A sizzle of pleasure raced away from her ear, weakening her knees. He held her upright and did not even miss a step in the dance. He pulled back and chuckled. "I'll take that as a sign of encouragement, but I will give you some time to think about it."

"Ambrose," she began, her voice throaty and warm even in her own ears. It made her cheeks flush deeper pink.

"Please," he said smoothly. "Call me Glitch."

Back at the dais, DeeDee was glad Ambrose - Glitch was seated three people away from her. She'd downed a whole glass of cold water and was still trying to calm her pulse. Her mother had cast her a narrow-eyed look when Glitch had led her back to the table, which made her feel simply wicked. That, in turn, made her feel mildly creeped-out. The room felt too warm, not all of that attributed to her last waltz. There simply too many people drinking too much wine or whatever alcohol one drank in the O.Z..

DeeDee decided to take some air and left her seat, heading out the closest door to the gardens. The night was bright with stars and a full moon, the cooling breeze was wonderful on her heated skin. See sat on a stone bench by the wall and listened to the music drifting from inside. Glitch was giving her time to think about "it". she imagined "it" was their relationship. Odd, but she didn't really need to sort out how she felt about Glitch. She never had. That was incredible in itself, as she did have low self-esteem back on the Other Side, but she'd never once questioned his feelings for her, or the way they had connected. She supposed the only problem she had was-

"I can't believe you invited Demilo."

_Speak of the Devil._ Cain did not sound upset by her choice of guest, only greatly amused. She looked over to where she'd heard his voice originate and was struck, once more, by the appearance of the man before her. Cain wore what she assumed was his dress uniform. Light pants that looked tan in the illumination spilling out of the ballroom doors, and white in the light of the moon. His jacket could have been any dark color from navy blue to green to black. It was high-nicked, like Glitch's, but far simpler in decoration; brass buttons, gold edging and a gold rope coiled over one shoulder. No hat for a change. He looked striking, though, she had to admit, she preferred him in his comfortable shirt and leather vest that showed off his neck and collar bone.

"You alright?" he asked when she had not responded for so long. She cleared her throat.

"Yeah, just a little overwhelmed," she told him, gesturing towards the ballroom. It was the truth, if a bit vague on the reason why. He nodded and joined her on the bench.

"I had planned to ask you to dance, but it looks like you're a little dance out," he told her lightly. She blushed, hoping he could not see it in the moonlight.

"A little," she agreed. They sat in companionable silence for a few moments before he spoke again.

"Look, kid," he began, his voice too serious for her liking. "There's something I need to talk to you about."

"Is something wrong?" she asked, he sounded far too solemn.

"Yeah, something's wrong," he told her, looking into her eyes. "I know I haven't been around a lot, there's a reason for that. When I kissed you-"

She shot up from her seat, the sudden motion causing him to break off, startled. She took a few steps away before turning back, overly upset, hands moving in board motions when she spoke.

"Okay. I can't… Cain," she looked at him as though he might try to bite her. "You kissed me, right. I know. It was an end of the world kind of thing. I get it. You don't have to let me down gently, okay? I know you don't-"

"That's the problem, kid," he cut her off, standing up. "I do."

She was dumb struck. Glitch she had always been able to read, knew exactly how he felt, but Cain was an enigma. He would scowl at her disdainfully one minute, then hold and comfort her the next. That kiss had been earth shattering, but she'd never thought he meant anything more by it. It was a combination of him having been locked in a metal box for the last eight years, her being the first human he'd connected with once he was out, the fact that she was a female and it was very likely to be the last time they'd ever see each other alive. And he'd never brought it up again, until now.

"I stayed away from you, because I was giving you time and space to let me know what you wanted. Because I do feel that way. I thought you knew, I thought it was obvious," he told her, looking rueful at his miscalculation. "Apparently, not."

He took a step towards her, but she backed away. Right into the wall. He quickly blocked her escape, planting his hands on the wall on either side of her head. He wasn't touching her at all, but she could almost feel his body pressing against her as it had that awful day. Warmth coiled in her belly for the second time that night, heat spreading across her thighs.

"Glitch-"

"We're not going to talk about Glitch, right now," he told her softly. "We're not even going to talk about you and me. I don't want you answer now. I just want to declare my intentions."

She gulped. "Intentions?"

He gave her a lazy, cowboy smile, his eyes filled with that same smoky speculation she had thought she'd imagined in the back of Demilo's wagon. He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips. It would have been considered chaste had he not tasted her lips with his tongue just before he ended it. Her knees were like water and she took his arm without thinking to keep from falling in a heap at his feet.

"Princess, I do believe you've had too much excitement for one night," he told her, eyes twinkling devilishly. He led her back into the ballroom and to the dais. He told her father the same thing, without the rakish glint. Ahamo immediately took charge of her and escorted his daughter up to her room.

"Should I call your maid?" her father asked, sitting her down on her bed. She shook her head. Her dress was fastened with ties in the front and on her hips, so she would be able to undress unassisted. "Need anything before I go?"

She shook her head again, giving him a somewhat forced smile. "I'll be fine, Dad." He stopped, eyes welling up. "What?" she asked, alarmed. He wrapped her in a hug and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"That's the first time you've called me 'Dad' since you got back," he told her, his voice raw with emotion. She smiled, tearing up herself. He pulled away and wiped at his eyes, with a little laugh. "Thank you."

Several hours later, DeeDee still lay awake in bed, thinking about Glitch and Cain. She'd ridden a roller coaster of arousal and frigidity for so long it was making her feel ill. Back on the Other Side she'd never had so much as a boyfriend and now, two men she loved equally _both_ wanted to be with her. It was a rather cruel joke from fate. _Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink._


	29. Going Home

**In which our princess learns the awful truth.**

**PS: Okay, you greedy monkeys. _all _your questions are answered in this chapter. you'd best give me some fuckin love. I dont care if you haven't reviewed for the last 28 chapters.. this is where i earn my M rating. so pay up! **

**PPS: i knew who she was gonna end up with before i started writing this... i just like to tease. mwahahahahahahaha!**

**PPPS: NO SKIPPING AHEAD TO FIND OUT WHO IT IS. JUST READ IT LIKE NORMAL... cheaters.**

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When DeeDee awoke the day after the ball, the suns were shining, the birds were singing and she felt well rested. Then, things went down hill. An instant after she opened her eyes, she remembered what had happened the night before and felt ill. She spent most of the morning in bed, crying off and on. She'd told her maid to inform everyone she was just tired after the ball and wanted to rest, ensuring no one would come looking for her while she made the most difficult choice of her life.

First, she had to fully admit her feelings to herself. She loved both Cain and Glitch. They both had saved her life and both meant to world to her. Worse than that, they were friends with each other. If she chose Cain, it would damage, possibly destroy, both of their relationships with Glitch. If she chose Glitch, the same would happen with Cain. Not to mention, if she was totally honest with herself, how, while being with one, she would be thinking of how it would have been had she chosen the other. Fate is cruel, no one knew that better than she, and still she was learning a new lesson on the old rule.

She made up her mind and hoped her decision was the right one. _Frailty, thy name is woman._ She could not choose one over the other, and so, she chose neither. Then, she cried some more. When she had moved passed the grief stage and into anger, she decided to get off her ass and do something to take her mind off the painful situation. There was much work to be done in the fields of the papay. She only hoped she would not start being maudlin over the memories she had of the place. _Sniffle. And there's where Glitch and Cain made me jump off a cliff. Wailing, tears, blows nose. _Ugh.

However, upon reaching her office on the third level, she was informed that Raw had been called away on an urgent matter to the Viewer Enclave and Head Advisor Ambrose had ordered that the princess was not to go to the papay fields without the viewer and himself.

"He ordered it?" she asked, nonplussed. The head of her guard detail nodded.

"Yes, your Highness."

"But… I'm the _princess_!" she squeaked in outrage. The man had looked apologetic.

"I'm sorry, highness," he told her, shifting uncomfortably. "But, as Head Advisor to the Queen, he… outranks you."

"Are you _yanking_ me?!" she shouted at him. The man fell back a few steps and looked about nervously. DeeDee ignored him and stormed out of the room, heading straight for her mother's day chamber.

She shoved the door open, striding in with quick, angry steps. The Queen was sitting by the window, doing needlepoint. Why was she always doing needlepoint? How many flower embroidered throw pillows can one palace have?

"Mother, I need you to rescind an order," she said, forging any greeting. Illiancara looked up sharply.

"What order?" she demanded, her voice chilled. DeeDee was not intimidated.

"Ambrose gave an order that I was to be barred from going to the papay fields without Raw," she told her mother. The woman's face immediately softened into a kind of unconcerned look of pleasant superiority.

"Well, darling," she said, her voice smooth with self-satisfaction. "He's your advisor and I would not want to intrude on any disagreements you two have. It's your place to control your own staff."

DeeDee scowled. "He's _your_ advisor, mother, which is why he can make orders _I _can't override."

The Queen smiled smugly. "Oh, no," she told Dee. "Ambrose resigned his post today, you see. He is no longer part of my staff. He must have given his order before coming to see me. That is a shame."

DeeDee glared at her mother. "Will you rescind the order or not?"

"No," Illiancara said. "I would have to speak with Ambrose first. I'm sure he had sufficient reason to give the order and I'll not contradict that without his input. I'm sorry, DeeDee."

The princess ground her teeth. The woman had never felt less like a mother than at that moment. She turned on her heel and quit the room, slamming the door behind. If she had stayed, she might have struck the woman. That would not have been a good idea. DeeDee spent the rest of the day in the library, trying to cram her mind so full of useless facts about the realm she did not have to think about her mother or anything else. It was possibly the worst thing she could have done. By the time Cain, Glitch, and Raw burst into the room well after midnight, she was well passed the point of no return.

The three males stood just inside the door, brought short by the scene before them. Books were strewn all about the room, at least two dozen piled, open, on the table at which Dee now sat, still as stone. Her face was drawn and pale, trails of long dried tears streaked her face. Her eyes, usually so bright, were dull and haunted. One glance at the books told Glitch which ones they were and his face showed anxious recognition.

"DeeDee-"

"Don't." She had not said it loudly or forcefully. In fact, it was how very quiet and void of emotion her voice was that made him obey. Cain took a tentative step forward. All three were acting as though she held a gun on them, or maybe herself, but she had not moved.

"Raw said you were in a bad way and we needed to get to you right away," the tin man told her, tone and cadence like he was trying to talk her off a ledge. She wondered just what Raw had told them. "What's going on, kid?"

Dee thought him calling her that would have hurt given the decision she'd made earlier today, of course, that was before she'd gone into the library. She didn't suppose anything would ever hurt again after that.

"I've been reading," she told him.

"Ya don's say?" he remarked, dryly. How like Cain to try to diffuse the situation with a little wit. Shame it wouldn't work. "What about?"

"Economics, weather patterns, agriculture," DeeDee recited, then gestured to a haphazard pile of books on the floor near her feet. "Linguistics. These," she waved a hand over the volumes spread out on the table before her. "Are birth records, royal logs, and history."

"Heavy load for one day," Cain said. She shrugged. "Find anything interesting?"

Glitch hissed a breath between his teeth and Raw put a hand to the advisor's shoulder.

"Very interesting," DeeDee told the blonde. He was edging closer every time he spoke and now stoop directly before the table. "Did you know, Cain, that my mother is an avid enthusiast of the ancients? Most of her youth was spent studying them. She's fluent in their language and even changed her name to Illiancara, Light Barer. Says so, right here." She tugged a book from the bottom of the pile and dropped it on top. Two books came loose and slipped to the floor.

"You're right, that is interesting," Cain told her, moving down the table, towards the end.

"Oh, there's more," Dee told him, still in that empty, dead voice. "My father's name isn't really Ahamo. It's Jasper. Illiancara gave him the name Ahamo. It means 'sky man' in the ancients' language. Do you know what Azkadellia means?"

"DeeDee, don't," Glitch pleaded from the doorway. DeeDee looked up then, for the first time since they'd entered the room. Her eyes met his and he paled, looking sorrowful and worried.

"I'm sure you know, Ambrose," Dee said. He flinched slightly at the name. "She told you everything back in those days." She turned to Cain who froze in midstep when he saw how much pain was in their blue depths. "Azkadellia means 'beloved of the light'. Isn't that pretty?" Cain nodded, looking lost in this conversation. But DeeDee had finally reached the point of this recitation of names. "Do you know what Dorothy means?" she asked. He opened his mouth to speak, but she shot to her feet, knocking the chair over, eyes hard, voice shaking with anger. "No! Of course, not. No one knows what the fuck Dorothy means, because Dorothy Gale was just some othersider who dropped into the O.Z.!"

Glitch rushed forward, but was halted by the look of betrayal she cast him. She waved her hand over part of the pile. "These are royal logs kept by loyal Advisor Ambrose. The queen spent the first year of her marriage planning for her children, or, no," she corrected herself with a harsh imitation of a smile. "Her child. Her beautiful Azkadellia. She spent all nine months of her pregnancy working out the perfect name for her daughter. And it is a lovely name.

"Dorothy Gale, the Original Slipper, the family legacy, a legend in her own time. You'd think it would be an honor to be named after such a great historical figure. Do you know what it really means, Cain? It means my mother couldn't be bothered to think of a name for me, because she didn't want me!"

Dee grabbed one of the volumes and tossed it to the floor at Glitch's feet. "Queen Illiancara expressed to me her regret and displeasure at having become pregnant again," she recited his words, burned into her memory since she'd first read them hours before. "She fears the prophecy of the Eclipse. The Queen lamented the fact that her husband is already aware of the pregnancy, for she knows he would never stand for a term-"

"Stop, Dorothy!" Glitch shouted. She ceased her litany, but did not look at him. "Just because your mother was afraid of something so foolish, doesn't mean-"

"But she was right, wasn't she, Ambrose?" DeeDee challenged. "_That's_ why you sang us that little song. Trying to tell me everything would be alright, but you were wrong. She was right."

"What are we talking about here?" Cain demanded, voice harsh with concern. Dee snatched up a book and swept the others aside, sending the whole pile tumbling to the floor. She slammed the tome in her hand on the table top and jabbed her finger at the page.

"The majestic Queen of the O.Z., had two lovely daughters she," she recited before breaking off, knowing the others knew the rest of the verse. "Azkadellia learned it from mother. I, on the other hand, was ironically left in the dark."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Poor Cain looked bewildered and upset. Dee sighed, knowing he had no clue. She wondered if Raw, who had remained silent by the door, knew what Ambrose did.

"It means I'm supposed to be dead," she told him.

"No!" Glitch barked, slapping his hands flat on the table top. "You're right. That's why I wrote the song. To tell you both that, no matter what prophecies are written, your fate was not sealed."

"But it was, Ambrose," she told him, almost gently. "One drawn to darkness. _I_ was the one who heard the witch's call. Kady had no idea, heard nothing, but I led her into that cave. I could hear the witch in my head, in my _heart_. She wanted me, but I ran away. It was supposed to be _me_! I'm the dark one."

"What are you talking about?" Cain demanded. "You destroyed the witch. You saved the O.Z.."

She turned pitying eyes on him. He was so naïve. "And why do you think my mother let Azkadellia grow up, witch and all, and never _once_ tried to stop her? Why do you think she let her terrorize the whole O.Z. for a decade, Cain?" The man had no answer, so Dee supplied him with one. "Because only one can hold the emerald and take the throne.

"She sent me to Earth, put the whole responsibility for the realm on my shoulders. Only one can take the throne. I was supposed to die fighting the witch, Cain. I was supposed to destroy the hag and myself in the process."

"That can't be true," the tin man told her firmly. He looked to Glitch for confirmation. "Tell her it's not true." But the advisor said nothing. Cain growled angrily. "It doesn't matter anyway," he told her, scowling. "The prophecy didn't come true and you're still alive."

"And in a world where I don't belong," Dee told him.

"You belong," he insisted, stepping close, eyes filled with emotion. "You belong right here."

DeeDee found that something could hurt, after all. She gave him a sad, cruel smile. "With you?" she jerked her head towards Glitch. "With him? I don't think so." The pain that took over his expression made her hurt even more and, oh, how she longed for that feeling of blank emptiness. "I'm leaving," she told them. It was both painful and a relief to say. She turned away from the blonde and walked around the far end of the table, towards the door. After a moment, he came around his end and moved to cut her off.

"We're not done talking, yet, princess," he told her, sternly. He did a double take then, apparently, just realizing something was off with her appearance. "What are you wearing?"

She was in her t-shirt and jeans, the ones she'd been wearing the day she'd arrived in the O.Z.. The stain from his blood still marred one shoulder. "The official dress of the realm," she told him. "I'm going home."

She could almost hear his teeth grinding as he stepped towards her menacingly. "You _are_ home," he said, glowering at her, as though outraged she would dare say something to the contrary.

"Home is where your heart is, Cain," she told him. "And there's none in the O.Z.. Not for me."

"DeeDee needed here," Raw insisted, speaking for the first time. "DeeDee will be Queen."

She paled at the very thought. Cain agreed with the Viewer. "Azkadelli put aside any claim to the throne, kid. You're the only heir left."

"I don't _want_ to be Queen," she declared. "There's probably a ton of people more qualified than me, anyway. The O.Z. will be better off."

"Promised Azkadellia," Raw reminded her. Her lip quivered and her eyes burned. "Never let go again. DeeDee promised."

"I know I did!" she snapped, voice quavering. "I'll always be there for her when she needs me. It's not like there's no way to get back here from the Other Side."

Cain was almost smirking, as though he could see the cracks forming in her armor. He took a step closer, she took a step back and bumped into Glitch.

"You're also forgetting one other important fact," the advisor informed her. Cain finished his thought.

"Ya think we'd just let you leave?" he asked. His tone conveyed that he was angrily amused by the very idea. DeeDee glared defiantly up at him.

"And just how do you plan to stop me?" she challenged, lip curled. Inside she was crying, _Please, please, don't let me go!_

Cain grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her toward him, crushing his mouth to hers possessively. She whimpered against his lips in sheer relief. He forced his tongue into her mouth, sweeping deeply to toy with hers. Again, she was reminded of whiskey, hot and sweet. He growled into her, making her shiver from head to toe. He pulled away, leaving a hot wet trail over her jaw and down her neck. Just when he reached her collar bone, Glitch slipped his hand under her chin and tilted her head back, covering her open mouth with his own. His tongue slipped inside just as Cain sucked hard at the place where her pulse beat hardest against the skin. She moaned into Glitch's mouth, heat spreading from her belly to between her thighs. She could feel Raw's approval and relief in her mind just before the Viewer closed the door behind himself as he left.

Cain pulled away from her then and snatched her hand up, dragging her from the room. "Come on," he said, voice deliciously gruff with arousal. The walk to his room seemed to take forever, but as they got closer, DeeDee felt distinctly like a prisoner being led to the gallows. Anticipation and anxiousness made her feel jittery. It was the first time she'd ever been in his bed chamber. It was dark, but he turned on only one lamp near the door. The room was done in warm browns and greens, like the woods. DeeDee glanced at the bed, shocked to see that it was at least twice the size of her own.

Cain immediately pulled her into another kiss, but the long walk had seemed to abate some of his anger and he was much gentler now. Though his touch had lost none of its heat. Glitch knelt behind her and pushed up her pant leg, deft fingers making short work of the long laces on Daisy's ruby red shoes. Cain turned her around, pressing his body against her from behind. Glitch moved to the other shoe. From above, DeeDee could only just make out the scar that had taken the place of his zipper. Cain teased the tip of his tongue along her ear ridge, then caught the lobe between his teeth. Jolts of pleasure shot all the way down her spine and she leaned back against him, turning to putty in his hands.

Glitch slipped his hands under the hem of her shirt and teased her stomach a moment before pulling the material up her rib cage. He leaned forward and blew gently on her belly, making her gasp and shiver. He smiled up at her wickedly then stood, pulling her shirt up and off as he did. She turned from his gaze reflexively, pressing her fore head to Cain's chest. She breathed in his scent and it made her forget her embarrassment and gave her the overwhelming desire to see what lay beneath the blue fabric. She pulled it free of his pants, then began to unbutton it from the bottom up. She pushed it back, over his shoulders, baring his chest for the first time.

He was hard muscled; broad shoulders, flat stomach. His skin was smooth and taut, hot under her exploring fingers. Like Glitch, the only hair was a tantalizing trail that led into his pants, where she could see the evidence of his arousal pressing against the fabric. She let her nails trail lightly across his rib cage. He shuddered under her touch, making her feel powerful. She scratched lightly over one dark nipple and he gasped, catching her hand and spinning her around.

Glitch had removed his own shirt, the top two buttons of his fly were undone. She reached out to touch him, as Cain touched her. His hands slid up her sides, cupping her breasts firmly. Glitch leaned in, capturing her mouth again. She thought he tasted like sinful candy, sweet and tempting. She felt his hands at the fly to her own jeans and her hips arched forward involuntarily. He smiled against her lips and opened her button and zipper, shoving the pants down over her hips. The fell at her feet and she stepped out of them and the shoes both.

Cain's hands moved from her chest to her hips, pulling her back against his own. She could feel him hard against her backside and groaned against Glitch's lips, rubbing against him. Glitch quickly unfastened her bra and tugged it away. Cain stepped back and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling Dee down onto his lap. Glitch pushed her legs apart and knelt between, nuzzling the valley between her breasts. Cain was grinding her down against his arousal with strong hands on her hips. Glitch's tongue swiped across one sensitive nipple and she dropped her head back on Cain's shoulder with a cry. Her fingers grasped at the former headcase's wild dreads. He suckled her hard peak languidly, making her whimper and writhe on Cain, who groaned over her gyrations.

Glitch's hands rested on the insides of her thighs. He squeezed the muscle and caressed her skin lightly. Then, he was touching her _there_ again, rubbing her through her panties. She moaned pitifully. He trailed saliva across her chest as he turned to torment her other nipple. Her hips rolled under his touch, pressure coiling in her like a spring. Cain lifted her off his lap and moved her aside him on the bed, slipping out from beneath her. Glitch pressed her back onto the coverlet, pushing her legs together so he could slip off her last vestige of clothing.

He separated her thighs again, resettling between them and bent to taste her. She choked on a shriek and grabbed handfuls of the blankets. Half of her wanted to watch what he was doing to her, but when she looked her arousal spiked to the point she had to look away. Her gaze fell on Cain, who was watching, eyes half lidded with lust, and that was almost too much. He saw her looking at him and gave her a slow, hot grin. And that _was_ too much. Her whole body arched upwards, head back, eyes squeezed shut as she climaxed loudly. She came hard and felt like limp rubber when she finally relaxed against the coverlet.

"Oh, my God," she whispered in awe. Between her legs, she heard a chuckle.

"Nope, just Glitch," the man said, grinning back at her when she looked down at him. Her stomach dipped in embarrassment. He took hold of her hands and pulled her upright so she was sitting on the edge again. "You're sure you want this?" he asked, eyes sincere. "We can still stop."

"I love you," she told him, for the first time. Loving him more for offering to stop. He beamed at her and pulled her head down for a kiss.

"I love you," he said in return. He turned her face to the side, so that her gaze fell on Cain, who had just unbuckled his pants. He pushed them down, revealing toned thighs and the hard arousal between, jutting proudly from soft, white-blonde curls. She took his hand, pulling him down to sit beside her on the bed. Glitch placed a kiss on her inner thigh and slipped away. DeeDee swallowed hard and reached out tentatively, taking Cain's erection in hand. It was hot against her palm and twitched and throbbed mesmerizingly. He hissed a breath in through his teeth and turned burning blue eyes on her. She moved her hand up and down once, testing his reaction. He groaned, eyes slipping shut for a moment. He pulled her hand away.

"It's been a long time," he growled. "Don't tease me." She nodded, understanding, and licked her lips, which felt too dry. "I know you're nervous," he began, but she stopped him.

"I'm not nervous," she said, which was only a half lie. "I just don't know what to do."

His blue eyes studied her a moment, then he pulled her forward for another searing kiss. He moved back, until he was sitting on the bed fully. She knelt beside him and he pulled her forward, so she straddled his lap. His erection pressed against her hot center and she shivered. He kissed her again and lay back, hands caressing her things where they pressed against his hips.

"Okay?" he asked. She nodded, blushing. He lifted her with a hand on her behind and reached between them, positioning himself at her entrance. She felt the moist tip of his erection slide into her and gasped. He put both hands on her hips then, lowering her slowly down his shaft. The slow friction on her inner walls so soon after orgasm made her moan. She broke off in a hiss when he reached the barrier of her virginity. "It's alright," he assured her as he pressed forward. "I've got you."

It hurt, but it didn't matter. She would worry about the hurt tomorrow or maybe never.

"I love you," he forced out, barely more than a gruff whisper. She grinned wickedly.

"You would say that, now," she told him, gasping when he rolled his hips. He felt so good inside of her she could not hold still. He groaned as she rose up and slid back down, reimpaling herself on him. He gripped her hips hard, forcing her to follow his rhythm as he lifted his hips to drive into her. "Oh, God Wyatt!" she cried, feeling like she was coming apart at the seems. He suddenly tensed, groaning loudly, hands bruising her hips. She felt him burst inside her and felt a prideful kind of satisfaction.

She leaned over, covering him like a blanket and kissing his lips teasingly. She gasped as he slipped out of her. He pulled her hair back away form her face and looked into her eyes, his own bright with emotion, dilated from lust.

"I love you," he said again. Glitch's admission had half filled a hole in her soul, Cain's words topped it off. All was right with the world, she mused, daftly.

"I love you, Wyatt Cain," she said on a sigh. His eyes flicked over her shoulder and then Glitch was there, hands on her hips. He pulled her back on all fours and pressed a kiss to her back before sliding into her.

He moved slowly, like he had all the time in the world. She moaned, eyes squeezed shut tight. Cain was gently caressing her face, she could feel her body brush his as Glitch gently thrust into her, rocking her forward. The pleasure was intense, stealing her thoughts. She could only move with Glitch, move against him as he pushed her further towards the edge. He pressed himself against her back, teeth gently nipping at her shoulder. She could hear herself pleading, an endless litany of pleases. He reached between her legs to stroke the sensitive bud there.

She shattered, screaming. His name, Wyatt's name, and nothing at all. She felt him spill into her, felt something hot and wet on her thighs and knew that was Cain again. She shuddered and shook and finally collapsed on the blonde man beneath her, crying onto his chest with the wonder of it all.

DeeDee awoke not long after, having been unable to keep her eyes open after her last, mind rending climax. She was laying half on Cain's chest, her head on his shoulder, one leg across his thighs. She could hear his heart beating in strong rhythm, could feel Glitch's pounding away against her spine. The other man was pressed against her back, fitting to her body like a missing puzzle piece. Cain held one hand, their joined hands resting on his chest. Glitch had woven his fingers through the ones on her other hand, stretched above their heads. She felt warm and lazy and completely satisfied. She might never move again, she decided. She blinked away the remnants of tears and Cain grunted tiredly.

"That tickles," he admonished. She smiled.

"You know," she mused aloud, voice a little rough from exertion. "It's kind of a coincidence that the two of you would both declare your love at the ball like that. Don't you think?"

"Did we do that?" Cain asked, innocently. Glitch was shaking against her back as he tried not a giggle.

"Mmhm," Dee confirmed. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you planned this."

"Well," Cain drawled. She could see him smiling, eyes still closed. "Not this, specifically, but something like it, yeah."

"You think we just decided to share you on the spur of the moment?" Glitch inquired into her ear, sounding vastly amused.

"You did scare me, though," Cain told her, now looking at her, eyes serious.

"Me, too," Glitch agreed, the laughter gone from his voice.

"Me, too," DeeDee told them with a shiver. Cain squeezed her hand and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Glitch tried to snuggle even closer to her and planted a kiss on her shoulder. She sighed.

"No more talk about leaving the O.Z.," Cain told her. She nodded against his shoulder. He seemed satisfied with that and closed his eyes again.

"There is one thing that has to be decided, though," she told them with gravity.

"What's that?" both men asked in unison. DeeDee smiled.

"Who gets to be king," she said, biting her lip.

"Glitch," Cain said immediately and firmly. She laughed softly and yawned.

"Why, Cain," the dark haired man cooed. "I do believe that is the nicest thing you've ever said about me."

"Not true," Cain corrected him. "At the ball, while you two were dancing, I told Raw you had rhythm."

Both men laughed, while DeeDee was completely left out of the joke. She would have asked them to explain, but she was too tired, and a moment later, she had drifted off again.

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**Don't forget to read the epilogue. it's full of good stuff.**


	30. Epilogue

Almost two years later, on a lovely snowy day, an adorable baby boy was born to Queen Dorothy Gale III, King Ambrose I, and Grand Duke Wyatt Cain. Both Cain and Glitch had insisted that they wanted a girl, sweet and feisty, with bright blue eyes and black hair like her mother. She had apologized and informed them repeatedly over the nine months of pregnancy that she was having a _boy_, whether they liked it or not. She was right. He was the most precious gift she had ever received. Cain and Glitch had beamed at her, eyes filled with love. Both men had been in the delivery room, each holding one of her hands as she struggled through the pain of labor. Thus, each man sported a broken finger on one hand. She apologized for that, too.

The Queen Illiancara had stepped down from the throne not long after the lavish wedding between her younger daughter and the two men that loved her. DeeDee was surprised and pleased to learn that unorthodox relationships, while not exactly common, were generally accepted in the O.Z.. She was doubly happy about that six months later when her sister married her stepson. Azkadellia had never been happier.

DeeDee had taken her place as Queen, even though it scared her to death. Illiancara retired to the palace at Finaqua, her favorite place in the world. Ahamo, who Cain only referred to as Jasper now, traveled back and forth between his wife and his daughters. DeeDee had tried to make amends with her mother and they shared a tenuous relationship, but things seemed to be going well. She supposed the older woman just needed time to rethink her views on the world.

As the child, Wyatt Ambrose (affectionately referred to as Button, by his mother) dozed in the Queen's arms, the King and Grand Duke playfully argued over the paternity of said child. Prince Wyatt had downy blonde hair, so pale it was almost white, like his father. He also had lovely, toffee colored eyes, _also_ like his father.

"How do you suppose that happened?" Jasper "Ahamo" asked with a grin. Raw winked at DeeDee and laughed.

Dee looked up at her father and smiled.

"Magic."


End file.
